“We’re total strangers who become instant sisters who understand and mirror one another’s deepest hopes and fears before we’ve even said hello.” Brenda Coffee, Breast Cancer Sisterhood.
I read this remarkable quote in an article about Elizabeth Edwards’ deep bond with other breast cancer survivors.
How true that some of the greatest struggles of our lives create powerful relationships. This quote also made me think of a different kind of sisterhood, one I’ve been pondering quite a bit these last six months. Let’s look at a wonderful “sisterhood” that we find in the middle of the Advent story:
Luke 1:36: “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God…”
Luke 1:39: “In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
This story and the story of Christ leads me to believe that there is a kind of sisterhood like the one Coffee describes, one in which, “total strangers …become instant sisters who understand and mirror one another’s deepest hopes and fears before we’ve even said hello.” Thankfully, we don’t have to be breast cancer survivors to know this kind of bond. We are truly sisters bound by the blood of Christ and the heartache and hope of the gospel journey.
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