Stranger things have happened. My friends had struggled with infertility for most of their married lives. Employing the latest reproductive technologies didn’t work and thousands and thousands of dollars later there was still no child. As a result of all this, and because of their advanced age, they had given up the possibility of having a biological child and adopted a little boy. They were overjoyed to bring this little one into their family, and we rejoiced together at his baptism. Little did we know at the time that my friend was pregnant; nine months later this couple welcomed their daughter into the world. They were truly overwhelmed by this unexpected and unlikely turn of events. Sometimes, surprise is the greatest blessing.

Surprise is at the start of Luke’s gospel narrative which begins with two women, who were both, like my friend, unlikely candidates for mothers. Elizabeth was a woman beyond child-bearing age. She was barren. Mary was a young, unmarried girl. Yet, these two women were the mothers of two of history’s most famous individuals: John the Baptist, the last prophet of Israel, and Jesus, who would be called, Messiah. The announcement of these pregnancies must have been disconcerting at best. As if this strange news wasn’t enough, it was announced to both families by an angelic visitor. The first words spoken were “do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid, indeed! These births would turn the world upside down, and would change the lives of these women; both women were the unlikely recipients of unlikely blessing.

Despite the improbable circumstances, Elizabeth praises God by saying, “This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men” (Luke 1:25). Elizabeth and Zacharias were both from priestly lines: Zacharias from Abijah, and Elizabeth from Aaron. The gospel alerts the reader that they “were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of God” (Luke 1:5-6). However, Elizabeth’s barrenness would have called her “righteous” status into question. Childless women were a ‘disgrace among men’ in her day. Childlessness was naturally looked upon as a grave misfortune or even as a sign that one was cursed by God. The wife who presented her husband with no such tangible blessings or supporters felt that her aim in life had been missed. So the announcement that Elizabeth would bear a child beyond her child-bearing years was as unlikely as a virgin having a child.

Mary, unlike Elizabeth, was a young girl from a backwater town. No priestly line, nor royal heritage. No one would have noticed her, or thought twice about her. Yet like Elizabeth, a strange blessing was bestowed upon Mary indeed! As one author notes, “Mary, God’s favored one, was blessed with having a child out of wedlock who would later be executed as a criminal. Acceptability, prosperity, and comfort have never been the essence of God’s blessing.”(1) Mary, despite the disgrace and the suffering she would endure declares, “Be it done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

To be sure, this “blessing” would cause Joseph to want to end his betrothal to Mary, leaving her alone and with child. Angelic intervention was necessary to change his mind. And after Jesus was born, Mary would watch her son grow, watch his itinerant ministry unfold, and behold the wrath and anger of the religious leaders he challenged and confronted. Then, she would watch in horror as her son was crucified, falsely accused and innocent of all charges.  She must have struggled to understand why God would not save him from that fate. Indeed, God’s blessing must have seemed very strange, or very cruel.

In general, blessing is equated with the good life. And when the term is used today, it is rarely ever used to refer to the unexpected and unwanted blessing of suffering or hardship. As one who hears these narratives today, I can scarcely see blessing in lives cut short, or in the pain of losing children far too soon. We do not get to hear much of what Mary or Elizabeth thought about these unlikely events, or how they must have felt as their sons’ lives unfolded. Yet, perhaps they uniquely understood that God’s blessings are not wrapped up in doing everything and anything we ask God to do for us. Instead, God’s blessings are often experienced in ironic, unexpected and strange ways—life emerging from death; joy from sorrow; becoming first by being last.

My friends certainly know this to be true, just as Mary and Elizabeth did. Their young daughter, not yet 12, died from a rare form of ocular cancer. They grieve her loss every day, even as they rejoice in the blessing of her short life; a strange blessing, indeed, and one that is filled with sadness. They have come to know a strange joy that Mary and Elizabeth must have also experienced. They have come to know that “joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes….”(2) Perhaps the most unlikely blessing indeed.

Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.

(1) Alan Culpepper, New Interpreter’s Bible: Luke, Vol. 9, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 52.

(2) Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark, (New York: HarperCollins, 1969), 54.