Blessed Are Those Who Weep - Elizabeth's Story

God blesses you who weep now, for the time will come when you will laugh with joy (Lk 6:21 NLT).

Even though this blog is about money, those who are poor are akin to those who weep. Luke begins his adventure with Mary's cousin Elizabeth who was old and had no children. This was a common story in the bible beginning with Abraham's wife Sarah and Samuel's mother. It was a story of a wife who had no children which in ancient times carried with it much more shame than it does today. Women were expected to bear children for their husbands and if they didn't it was always considered the woman's fault. In our culture we look to the physical and to the scientific reasons for why a woman can or cannot give birth. We know that the husband's sperm count may be the reason. But the world that Jesus lived in looked at things in a whole different way.

A barron woman lived a life of tregedy and shame before her husband, his family and all of society. People wondered what she may have done to deserve such a curse, the husband was never at fault. Even though Elizabeth spent most of her life in such shame, the day finally came when she bore a child in her old age. This was a complete revearsal of fortune. Overnight her reputation in the surrounding area went from horrible to amazing. People no longer wodered what evil she may be hiding or how she deserved her misfortune. When she became pregnant people saw her as blessed by God and they knew that her child was going to be special.