Promise Fulfilled

<p>Each summer when I was a child, I would travel two hundred miles to enjoy a week with my grandparents. I wasn&rsquo;t aware until later how much wisdom I soaked up from those two people I loved. Their life experiences and walk with God had given them perspectives that my young mind couldn&rsquo;t yet imagine. Conversations with them about the faithfulness of God assured me that God is trustworthy and fulfills <em>every</em> promise He makes.</p> <p>Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a teenager when an angel visited her. The incredible news brought by Gabriel must have been overwhelming, yet she willingly accepted the task with grace (Luke 1:38). But perhaps her visit with her elderly relative Elizabeth&mdash;who was also in the midst of a miraculous pregnancy (some scholars believe she may have been sixty years old)&mdash;brought her comfort as Elizabeth enthusiastically confirmed Gabriel&rsquo;s words that she was the mother of the promised Messiah (vv. 39&ndash;45).</p> <p>As we grow and mature in Christ, as my grandparents did, we learn that He keeps his promises. He kept His promise of a child for Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah (vv. 57&ndash;58). And that son, John the Baptist, became the harbinger of a promise made hundreds of years before&mdash;one that would change the course of humanity&rsquo;s future. The promised Messiah&mdash;the Savior of the world&mdash;was coming! (Matthew 1:21&ndash;23).</p>