“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’…And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.” (Luke 1:39-45, 56, ESV)

After hearing the angel’s stunning announcement that she would supernaturally conceive the Savior of the World, Mary went “with haste” to the home of her relative Elizabeth who was experiencing her own miraculous conception. Their reunion brought the power of the Holy Spirit upon both of them, and they proclaimed joy and blessings, including Mary’s famous Song of Praise, “The Magnificat,” which translates “my soul magnifies the Lord.”

I have no biological sisters, a fact that I have long lamented, but God has abundantly blessed me with many heart sisters and daughters over the years. This morning I enjoyed a beautiful Christmas party planned and attended by the sisters in my church family. This week one of my sisters spent her evening with me enjoying a Christmas Village through the very excited (and sometimes impatient) eyes of my children. Tonight another sister is taking me to a ballet!

It doesn’t surprise me at all that Mary went straight to Elizabeth’s home with her shocking news. Can you imagine the conversations these two women shared in their three months together? (With Zechariah silenced, they must have had unlimited time to talk!) There is nothing like a trustworthy, Lord-loving sister to help you process all that life brings.

I’m not sure where I would be right now without the sisters and daughters in my life who pray, encourage, uplift, exhort, and speak the hard honest truth to me. I recently read an article by Greg Morse on the Desiring God website called, “Find a Friend to Wound You.” He wisely stated that “godly friends are not less than EMTs (emergency medical technicians) who will rip open our carefully crafted excuses and stun us back to life. They wound us for our good.” In contrast, he said that ungodly friends “cheer us on toward destruction. They bequeath the kiss of flattery—the Dementor’s kiss. They coddle our egos, telling us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear.” He exhorts us to recognize that our “souls need friends who are willing to risk wounding [our] pride in the moment for the long-term good of [our] soul.”

I have had several such friends speak into my life over the past year as I sought the courage to walk away from a toxic but secure situation into a peaceful but very uncertain future. In the midst of that terrifying walk, I also experienced the shocking betrayl of one of those friends. A few short years ago, I would have shut down after experiencing that—closed and locked the door to my heart—but that is exactly what Satan hoped I would do when he orchestrated that situation. He would love nothing more than to isolate me and leave me to my own counsel.

Instead, I am running “with haste” into conversations, outings, service, fellowship, burden-sharing, mistake-making, feeling-hurting, wounding, giving, forgiving, and life-giving community with my sisters. And I fully expect the Holy Spirit to show up for us just as He did for Mary and Elizabeth, bringing blessing, joy, and fulfillment—our own little canticle of souls trying to magnify the Lord.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, ESV)