Elizabeth could have become jealous or bitter that her moment of thunder was dimmed by Mary’s spotlight.  Many times, that’s exactly how we respond.  When your moment of thunder, whatever that may mean to you, finally arrives, it’s like you want the whole world to stop and relish it with you for a season.

Obviously you don’t expect it to last forever, but for a little while at least.  And when it doesn’t – when your moment gets overshadowed by someone or something else – it can be a hard pill to swallow.  That’s when the fake smiles appear.  That’s when the sarcasm surfaces.  That’s when friendships unravel.

Women can be catty.  A lot of people say that the mark of a true friend is someone who will cry with you.  I beg to differ. Crying with someone is easy!  It’s easy to buy a friend a cup of coffee, let her cry on your shoulder, then go home to your picture-perfect life.

What’s much harder, however, is to throw a friend a party, genuinely celebrate through all of her thunder and hoopla, then return home to your average – or even cruddy – life.  That, to me, is the mark of a true friend.

Elizabeth was such a friend to Mary.  Here’s what happened when Mary came to visit her after finding out about her pregnancy:

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” Luke 1:41-45

Elizabeth was ecstatic!  She saw the bigger picture.  She knew that what she and Mary were experiencing wasn’t about their miraculous pregnancies at all. It wasn’t about who was the most blessed. It wasn’t about whose thunder was louder.

It was about the long-awaited Messiah finally coming to earth.

Elizabeth knew that what was happening to her and Mary was happening for the sole purpose of bringing glory to God.  And so she praised Him. She didn’t compare notes. She didn’t accuse God of playing favorites. She didn’t belittle her blessing because it wasn’t the same as someone else’s. Instead, she did what we should all do when we see our fellow sisters being blessed – she praised the One from whom all blessings flow.

And her initial response to Mary’s news, I believe, had a direct influence on how their sons’ ministries unfolded years later…

Q: How do you celebrate God’s blessings in your friends’ lives?