At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, , and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!’

Tom Wright points out that this a wonderful picture of ‘the older woman, pregnant at last after hope had gone, and the younger one, pregnant far sooner than she had expected’ (‘Luke for Everyone’, p.16).

But I was thinking: doesn’t something like this happen when you go to another part of the country, or, indeed, to another place in the world, and you meet a fellow-Christian? Your heart leaps. You sense a spiritual connection – something like electricity sparking between you.

Today’s paragraph is, of course, about a much greater reality than that, but it made me think about those times when I’ve run into a fellow-believer elsewhere, and the awareness of us being bound together by the same Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist and Jesus were to share the most significant and unique spiritual connection: Jesus being the Messiah and John his forerunner; and even as un-born babes they appeared to recognise each other. How marvellous!