Elizabeth (God is my oath)

Fourth Day of Advent

Luke 1:13-17 Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. …he will be great in the sight of the Lord. … and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. … he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, … — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Some things a man will never understand,

like how to make a proper lentil soup,

and why a woman needs a baby.

My Zasha’s a good husband, but a man.

He’s loving, kind, and caring,

but he couldn’t make a Sabbath meal to save his life.

It’s not his fault.

I wept and prayed our married life away,

and then, in my old age, a miracle.

But no rain falls from cloudless skies;

I got a baby, Zasha got a stroke.

He couldn’t speak.

Our family and our friends

were more concerned than I can say.

But laughter’s like the weather,

welcome or unwelcome, it visits all occasions.

They joked that he was speechless with amazement,

or maybe just too old for making love.

And, in the end, it all worked out just fine.

But, then again, where does it really end?

My cousin’s daughter came to visit me

when I was six months gone.

- A hard time when you’re old

and sickness in the home. –

And she had problems of her own.

My baby late, and hers a little early.

But, as my mother used to say,

“We have troubles; never trouble.

Who ever had one measle or one mump?”

I knew that something strange was going on.

Not just my odd condition,

but Zasha and the angel in the Temple.

(He couldn’t speak, but he can write,

and I can read a little.)

The angel told him –this is what he said –

that John would be Elijah, coming first.

John? What’s this?

I have a hundred baby names; no Johns.

But Papa picks the name, and it is done.

(Still, what if it’s a girl?)

The day that Mary came

John fought, like he was trying to get out.

And something overtook me and I knew

that she was part of this.

I knew that, somehow, my Elijah

was an Esau to her Jacob,

twins, like night and day.

Mine/hers/mine/hers/mine/hers/mine/hers.

And different as the darkness and the light.

My John, first born,

but Mary’s first at last.

My Esau,

then her Jacob,

Night came first,

and has, forever,

come at last,

But still we know that,

in the end,

it will be day.