Elizabeth, Mother of John – Forerunner of Jesus
The angel said to Mary, “…behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son.” Luke 1:36
Living under Roman oppression in her own land, being called, pegged as “barren”, Elizabeth stuck to the truth she knew, fulfilling the God given requirements of the time. After centuries of her people not hearing much from God, she still believed the ancient holy prophets’ words and carried on with worship, despite major disappointment in her life. I’d call that soul grit.
“And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly…”
Luke 1:6
And seeming a bit late, a beam of Son came, rebelling against what the world around was telling her, and re-named her. Like a cloud-covered dusk sneaking in light in the nick of time, Elizabeth’s womb awakens to its Maker’s curious bidding all but too late. Weary-of-hoping, settling-for-being-less in other’s eyes, she herself is startled to the reality of something new in her. Past her time and beyond any relevance of her day, she receives a joyful honor that only a few understood.
“your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord.” Luke1:13,-15
God seems to like to do things like that in our later years: surprise us with newness. I’m seeing it especially in those who take notice of His stirrings, who resist the pull from truth and the lure to complacency. I see it in those who risk indulging in faith. He infuses with a wink things in us we’d given up dreaming about, when we feel used up and irrelevant, like Moses after near fatal failure and a lot of years. God’s timing seems so off. 
Mary was too young;
Elizabeth was too old. Moses was way out of date. But God who is beyond time bestows on time a gravity that deeply effects eternity. What will I do with my later years?
I’m noticing some newness going on in me and working on resisting the pull to complacency. And wait, I think I see a burning bush!
How are you attuning to receive the new He wants to conceive in you?