Christmas – Page 5 – Michelle Lesley

For me, part of the reason Christmas is the “most wonderful time of the year” is the music. There are the old favorites as well as some great new songs that have come out over the years. Unfortunately, there are some stinkers out there, too.

In December 2014, I published my first collection of the aforementioned “stinkers,” Top 10 Worst Christmas Songs of All Time. It instantly became an annual Christmas favorite, with readers suggesting more awful songs to add to the list every year, leading to volumes 2 and 3 of Top 10 Worst.

This year, rather than adding a volume 4, I’ve decided to compile volumes 1-3 here in one list and just keep adding Christmas songs you love to hate every year (Could there possibly be any more?). And, while I can’t imagine why you would want it, if you need a playlist of all of these horrid songs, here you go: The Worst Christmas Songs of All Time.

Everybody has her own taste, so the songs that give you the Christmas crazies are probably different from the ones that get on my nerves, but, here, in no particular order, are my (and your!) picks for the worst Christmas songs of all time.

1. The Christmas Shoes– Hi, we’re going to write a song that’s a blatant attempt at emotional manipulation, and then if you say you don’t like it, people will think you’re heartless. Merry Christmas.

2. Last Christmas– Really? We have to listen to co-dependent whining about a break up in a Christmas song? And from Wham?

3. Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer– This has such a catchy tune. It’s too bad the family in this song belongs on a reality TV show.

4. Same Old Lang Syne– This is my pick for the absolute worst “Christmas” song (it really has nothing to do with Christmas) of all time. The only good thing I can say about this is, at least the people in the song didn’t actually have an affair. It’s bleak, it’s immoral, it’s depressing, and it’s the same four bars of melody over. and. over. and. over.

5. Must Have Been Old Santa Claus– “Happy ho, ho, ho to you.” Four. million. times. Kill me. Kill me now.

6. Baby, It’s Cold Outside– Because nothing says “Merry Christmas” like attempted date rape by a drink drugging letch.¹

7. Santa Baby– They could have named this song “Sugar Daddy” or “Implied Sexual Favors in Exchange for Obscenely Expensive Gifts.” Same thing.

8. Mistletoe– I’m just going to make a rule right here, right now: no Christmas songs that force middle-aged people to go to Urban Dictionary to understand the lyrics. My kids had to explain to me what “shawty” means. Apparently, it’s similar to a “bae.”

9. Do They Know It’s Christmas?– Stop having Christmasy fun RIGHT NOW. Just STOP IT. Don’t you know there are people starving in Africa, you soulless oaf? And, seriously, who puts the word “doom” in a Christmas song?

10. Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Canon– It pains me to list this one because I love TSO, I love children’s choirs, I love Pachelbel’s Canon in D, and I love the idea of trying to Christmas it up. But I would rather eat a ten year old fruitcake than listen to this.

11. Please, Daddy, Don’t Get Drunk this Christmas – I can just picture the artistic meetings that took place on this one: “We need a new Christmas song for your next album, John. Any ideas?” “How about a potential domestic violence case set to country music? That’ll fill everybody’s heart with Christmas cheer!”

12. Dominick the Donkey –
Dear Italy,
Please stick with what you do best – food and opera.

13. Happy X-Mas, War is Over (So This Is Christmas) – Excuse me, but I think you’re looking for Woodstock. Go back several decades and hang a left.

14. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – Why not? I wanted a monkey for Christmas when I was a kid. I stand in solidarity with this kid and every other kid who wanted a ridiculous animal for Christmas and never got one. (To be honest, I think this song is kinda cute {be sure to catch grown-up Gayla singing it at the end of the video}. I include it on behalf of all my readers who said it’s driving them to the loony bin.)

15. Hard Candy Christmas – Maybe I’ll wallpaper my bathroom. Maybe I’ll get a mohawk. Maybe I’ll eat cold Spaghettios right out of the can. MAKE👏UP👏YOUR👏MIND👏

16. Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time – There’s good 80’s synthesizer and there’s bad 80’s synthesizer. I’ll let you guess which one earned this song a spot on the list.

17. White Winter Hymnal – “It’s lyrically fairly meaningless.” That’s what the songwriter had to say about this song. Dude, lemme ‘splain you something about songwriting. When you have a cool piece of music like this, don’t waste it on meaningless lyrics. Collaborate with a good writer and make it an awesome song with meaning. (Let me also take this opportunity for my annual reminder: Pentatonix is not a Christian group, regardless of the songs they record. According to Pride magazine, “Two of Pentatonix’s members, Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi, are openly gay, and the group vocally supports the LGBT community.”)

18. Driving Home for Christmas – This song is the musical equivalent of driving across west Texas. And by that, I mean – monotonous. (Sorry west Texas, but you know it’s true.) At least he didn’t regale us with the number of each mile marker as he passed it. Thank the Lord for small favors.

19. I’m Gettin’ Nuttin for Christmas – Quick! Somebody get the rod of correction – this kid is out of control! Cute, but not your best work, Shirl.

20. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Kid witnesses Mom stepping out on Dad and is traumatized for life. Just one more reason not to lie to your kids about Santa Claus. (Tell them it’s Dad, ladies, and you can kiss him all you want! :0)

21. All I Want for Christmas Is You – I don’t know what kind of deal Mariah Carey made with every single one of the eleventy two million FM stations in the country to play this song every time anyone turns her radio on between November and January, but it was a doozy. Are you hearing it in your sleep yet? Is your dog singing the doo-wop parts?

(Full disclosure – This one made the list because you overwhelmingly demanded it. I actually dig it. It’s exactly the kind of mid-’50’s – early ’60’s flavor I love. Just not every time I turn around. Please don’t hate me. :0)

22. Mary, Did You Know? – I know, I know, some of y’all are going to unfollow me over this one. You love this song. I did too … the first nine thousand times I heard it or had to sing it in choir. And I think that’s probably the main reason so many of my followers requested that I put this one on the list. It’s been beaten to death like a too-stiff meringue.

Did she know? Did she not know? Let’s settle that argument once and for all.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
No.

…would calm a storm with His hand?
No.

There are no Old Testament prophecies which predicted that the Messiah would walk on water or calm a storm.

…give sight to the blind man?

The blind will see
The deaf will hear;
The dead will live again!
The lame will leap
The dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb!

If Mary knew her Bible (and if you’ll check the cross-references to the Magnificat, it certainly seems she did), she most likely knew the Messiah (i.e. her “baby boy”) would do these things. However, she wasn’t omniscient and wouldn’t have known the specific timing or circumstances surrounding these healings and resurrections.

Everything else in the song (He would deliver her, He is Lord of all Creation, etc.) is either stated or implied in Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah (which Mary would probably have known), in Gabriel’s announcements to Mary and Joseph, or both.

So, yeah, except for the walking on water and calming the storm parts, she knew.

Debate over.

23. The Little Drummer Boy (Carol of the Drum) – You just know some man came up with the idea for this song, right? No mother in her right mind who’s just given birth – even Mary – would welcome some kid banging on a drum with the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. You would think that … but you would be wrong, because this song was written by one Katherine Kennicott Davis. I guess her kids were heavy sleepers.

(If you actually like drums, just not the song, check out this drumline version that partly drowns out the song. And, did you know they made a kids’ movie out of this cacophonous carol?)

24. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (the Bruce Springsteen version) – He sees you when you sing flat. He knows when you’re off key. He’s only leaving coal for you – naughty, naughty, naughty.

25. Do You Hear What I Hear? – Is the tail of the star as big as a kite, or as long as a kite’s tail? If the song had a voice as big as the sea, how could the shepherd boy help but hear it? In fact, how could he even hear the lamb asking him the question? And wouldn’t a talking lamb be more impressive than a song with the volume on high? How does a shepherd get an audience with the king? And why would he suggest silver and gold for a freezing baby instead of blankets or a nice snow suit? (Guess that’s why he’s a shepherd, not a king.)

I have questions.

26. The Cherry Tree Carol – This is called “writing under the influence,” kids. Mary’s a queen, Joseph’s got anger management issues, and Jesus speaks while in utero. Uh huh. Don’t tell me chemicals weren’t involved in that composition.

27. My Favorite Things – THIS IS NOT A CHRISTMAS SONG. You can put jingle bells behind it all the livelong day and it will still. never. be. a. Christmas. song. N-E-V-E-R. Only Julie Andrews is allowed to sing this song, and only in war-torn Austria. Did I mention it’s not a Christmas song? I said what I said.

28. Mary Was the First One to Carry the Gospel – Everything about this song is great but the hook. That is just 🤢.

This is why we can’t have nice things, fellow Southern gospel lovers.

29. The Most Inconvenient Christmas – Oh no. NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNO. Are you KIDDING me? These guys are professing Christians and they churn out this theological cataclysm? When something is “inconvenient,” that means it clashes with our previous plans, or it’s difficult to get done, or it doesn’t fit with our timetable, or we had to go out of our way to do it. And because of all that, it’s an unpleasant task that we’re reluctant to do.

Say it with me, sisters: NOTHING IS “INCONVENIENT” TO GOD. Nothing. He is the God who upholds the universe by the word of His power. He is omnipotent, omniscient, everlasting to everlasting, God Almighty, King of kings and Lord of lords who spoke all of Creation into existence. Sending His only Son into the world to live a perfect life and die a horrible, agonizing, bloody death for your sin and for mine was not “inconvenient” for God. It was His plan from eternity past. And it wasn’t difficult for Him. And He didn’t do it begrudgingly or reluctantly. He did it because He loves you that much, and He rightfully loves His own glory even more.

I’ve been an Oak Ridge Boys fan since I was a kid, but this is one of the most offensive songs I’ve ever heard. It impugns the very nature and character of God. It’s the Reckless Love of country Christmas music.

30. I Never Knew the Meaning of Christmas – I hate to break it to you guys, but you still don’t know the meaning of Christmas.

Dear Santa- Please bring these boys a Bible for Christmas.

31. Christmas Time Is Here– I have loved A Charlie Brown Christmas since I was a child, and the lyrics of the song are great, but this 1960’s piano lounge slow jazz is the musical equivalent of a 6 year old engulfed in ennui whining, “I’m boooooooooooooooored,” on a grey, drizzly winter day. It’s minor. It’s dissonant. It makes me want to open the back door and toss a kid out into a snow bank head first.

32. A Marshmallow World– This is another one I added simply due to reader demand, but I really think y’all are wrong on this one. This is a cute song. Who doesn’t love marshmallows, whipped cream, and sugar dates with your sweetie? (“People who live in Wisconsin and spend their winters shoveling those mounds of marshmallows off the driveway, Michelle!”)

33. Grown Up Christmas List– “…and my greatest desire is world peace,” you can almost hear the beauty pageant contestant gushing. My grown up Christmas list includes a new toaster and a gift certificate for having my carpets cleaned. Am I supposed to feel guilty about that?

(I’m posting the Amy Grant version because it gets extra “worst” points for the schmaltzy synthesizer and tug-at-your-heartstrings kiddies with candles, but also because, as she’s a professing Believer who – among other things – is perversion-affirming, I wanted to let you know, if you didn’t already, Amy is one to be avoided.)

34. Redneck 12 Days of Christmas– I’m all for tacky and twangy, but … yeah, that’s just annoying.

35. Dogs Barking Jingle Bells– I wouldn’t want to listen to it more than once every few years, but I just think this one is funny. Listed by popular demand. (Plus, when you search for this song on YouTube, you wind up with a bunch of hilarious videos of animals “singing” Christmas songs.)

Bonus!

Listen in to A (Word Fitly Spoken) Christmas Carol, and hear both Amy’s and my nominations for the worst (and best) Christmas songs!

Agree? Disagree?
What do you think is the
worst Christmas song of all time?

¹(Baby, It’s Cold Outside was added to my original article Top 10 Worst Christmas Songs of All Time in 2014, long before the #MeToo movement, and long before the explanation of what the composer of Baby, It’s Cold Outside purportedly meant by it was in general circulation. My brief evaluation of this song is based solely on the impression I was left with by the lyrics, much the same way people have taken umbrage with Reckless Love based on the lyrics alone, despite Corey Asbury’s explanation of what he supposedly meant when he wrote it. I am not a liberal, a feminist, or on the #MeToo bandwagon. I’m confident my track record bears this out, and I’m appalled by accusations to the contrary based solely on my one sentence reaction to this song.)

Christmas

Anna’s Example

December 23, 2021December 10, 2025 Michelle Lesley

Remember Anna? She’s one of our often overlooked sisters from Scripture. As with Elizabeth, we don’t usually hear much about Anna, except sometimes, once a year, at Christmas.

When Jesus was about a month old, Mary and Joseph took Him to the temple to fulfill the requirement of the Levitical law of purification. And that’s where they encountered Anna.

Now, just a little lagniappe here, the purification ceremony where we meet Anna was completely separate from Jesus’ circumcision ceremony.

Circumcision took place when the baby was eight days old, probably in the parents’ home or possibly in the local synagogue (the synagogue was sort of a “branch campus” of the temple in towns that were outside of Jerusalem). Mary would not have been able to enter the synagogue in Bethlehem or the temple in Jerusalem for Jesus’ circumcision since she would still have been ceremonially unclean from His birth.

The purification ceremony that made her ritually clean again took place when Jesus was 33 days old at the temple in Jerusalem. A sacrifice was offered for Mary’s cleansing and Jesus was dedicated to the Lord. (see Leviticus 12)

I spell this all out because, if you’re like me, and you hear the Luke 2 account of Jesus’ birth every year, you tend to let it wash over you without really thinking about it. I never really gave much thought to the fact that these were two different events in two different places until I was studying about Anna.

And Luke 2 presents all of these events in kind of a machine gun fashion so it can practically feel like everything in that chapter is happening on the same day, and we can conflate things we shouldn’t. For example, many people think that Simeon and Anna were married just because their stories appear back to back in Luke 2. As we’re about to see, that wasn’t the case.

Let’s take a look at Anna’s story:

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Luke 2:36-38

Anna had a lot of strikes against her in life:

She was a woman. In Anna’s day, women were “low man on the totem pole” so to speak. They were regarded as less than men in practically every way- intelligence, abilities, worth, and so on. They couldn’t testify in court because their testimony wasn’t considered credible. And, maybe you’ve even heard of the daily prayer that Jewish men still say today, thanking God for not creating them a gentile…a slave…or a woman.

She was a widow, and possibly childless. A woman of that time without a husband or grown children to take care of her would have been in very real danger of poverty.

She was old. Average life expectancy in Anna’s day was 55. She was 84. When you’re 84 in ancient times with no modern medicine, you’re feeling it.

So, Anna was a woman, she was a widow, and she was old. She had some disadvantages. But Anna didn’t let those things stop her from serving the Lord full throttle. In fact, she took some of those supposed disadvantages and put them to work for her.

Anna didn’t let disadvantages stop her from serving the Lord full throttle. In fact, she took some of those supposed disadvantages and put them to work for her.
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If Anna had had a husband to care for or children to raise, she wouldn’t have had the time or the energy to serve the Lord full time. And she wouldn’t have had the opportunity either, because no one in that culture would have thought it appropriate for a woman with a husband and children to abandon them to stay in the temple.

Also, in a culture that respected its elderly, it’s likely that more people – especially younger women – would have listened to her than if she had not been so advanced in years.

So Anna turned these disadvantages into opportunities. And what did she do with those opportunities? She used them to serve God and to tell people about Jesus.

That’s what the Christian life is all about – serving God and telling others about Jesus – whatever your station in life.

Maybe you’re single like Anna, and God has blessed you with the time and freedom to serve Him full time – or at least fuller time than you’d otherwise be able to.

Maybe you do have a husband and children- and God has given you the opportunity to serve Him by serving them: pouring the gospel into your children, being a godly helpmate to your husband, and being a faithful, serving member of your church.

Maybe you’re older, and instead of using your golden years for travel or hobbies or shopping, God is leading you to teach younger women or throw yourself into ministry in some way.

Anna’s example to us is to bloom where God plants us and grab hold of every opportunity to serve Him and tell others about Jesus.

Anna’s example to us is to bloom where God plants us and grab hold of every opportunity to serve Him and tell others about Jesus.
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Christmas, Mailbag, Parenting

The Mailbag: What should we tell our kids (and grandkids) about Santa Claus?

November 29, 2021December 1, 2025 Michelle Lesley

Originally published December 4, 2017

As Christian parents, is it OK for us to tell our children about Santa Claus?

Christmastime can be so much fun when you have children. Many of us remember the excitement of Santa, the Christmas tree, and presents from our own childhood. They’re happy memories, and we want to recreate those for our children.

But as Christian parents, our first priority isn’t fun, it’s obedience to Scripture. Yet is there a way to make Christmas merry for our children while still upholding God’s Word? Is Santa patently unbiblical?

No, he doesn’t have to be, as long as he keeps his sleigh parked inside the parameters of Scripture. Let’s take a look at some of the ways Santa can be unscripturally naughty, and how godly parents can keep him nice and biblical.

Santa Claus isn’t real. If you tell your children he is, or that he is the one who brings their presents, or that he knows whether they’ve been naughty or nice, you’re lying. The Bible says that lying is a sin, period. There’s no exception for jolly old elves who pass out toys (or for tooth fairies or Easter bunnies, either, for that matter). And not only is lying a sin, it is extraordinarily hypocritical to lie to your children about Santa Claus and then turn around later and punish them when they lie about something. Lying to your children about Santa Claus teaches them that it’s OK to lie (i.e. sin) when you want to or when it would be to your advantage.

Don’t lie to your children about Santa Claus. Tell them the truth: he’s a fun, fictional character that we can enjoy reading stories and singing songs about, just like Goldilocks or Superman or Old MacDonald. As for the presents, maybe you’d like to handle it similarly to the way my husband and I did with our children. When they were very small, my husband or I would don a Santa hat on Christmas Eve and say something like: “You know how you like to play pretend? Well, mommies and daddies like to play pretend, too, especially at Christmas! Now it’s time for you to go to bed so we can pretend to be Santa Claus.”

Santa Claus isn’t omniscient.

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good, for goodness’ sake!¹

Uh uh. No way. Omniscience is an incommunicable attribute of God. He is the only One who has the power to see and know all things, and it is an insult and an affront to Him to even suggest that a mere mortal – let alone a fictional character – has the same power and knowledge that He has. In reverence and awe for God’s preeminence, we should never ascribe to others the things that belong to God alone.

Teach your children about the attributes of God. When you read your children stories about Santa Claus or hear Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town on the radio, it’s a perfect opportunity to teach them about God’s omniscience and power. “Did y’all just hear that? That song said Santa Claus can see you and knows how you’re behaving. Is that true? Who is the only One who always sees you, cares for you, and knows what you’re doing and thinking? Can anybody else besides God do that?”

Santa Claus teaches works righteousness. In St. Nick’s economy, good behavior earns a reward (presents). Bad behavior earns punishment (coal). If you’ve ever shared the gospel with anybody, that will probably sound familiar. Most lost people think that’s what Christianity is. If you’re a “good person” God is happy with you and you’ll go to Heaven. Hell is the punishment for “bad people”: Hitler, murderers, and rapists. This is not what the Bible teaches, either about salvation, or about why children should obey their parents.

Teach your children the gospel. Again, this whole “naughty or nice” part of the Santa Claus narrative is a perfect gospel-teaching opportunity. Take advantage of it! Ask your child to be “nice” for one whole day. At bed time, take a few minutes to talk about the times she messed up and was “naughty” when she was supposed to be trying to be “nice.” Nobody can be nice and obedient all the time, no matter how hard we try. We are all naughty – sinners with coal black hearts deserving the punishment of Hell. Jesus came and lived a life of perfect “niceness” (obedience), died on the cross to take the punishment for our naughtiness, was buried, and rose again. He did that, not because we earned it with good behavior, but because of His mercy and grace. And then He gave us the greatest gift ever. A gift we naughty people don’t deserve: salvation and eternal life in Heaven. And it is because of our love and gratitude to Christ for saving us that we obey Him, not so that He will give us what we want. Indeed, the Bible tells us that the more obedient to Christ we are, the more persecution we will face.

Santa Claus doesn’t automatically have to be on the Christian parent’s naughty list. There are lots of ways to enjoy the fun of Santa and even turn him into an opportunity to teach your child biblical truth, all while being obedient to Scripture. But if Santa makes you biblically uncomfortable in some way, then by all means, don’t go against your conscience. Whichever way you decide – after prayer, study of the Scriptures, and discussing it with your spouse – do not judge other Christian parents by your personal convictions about Santa Claus.

Any advice for grandparents about Santa? Our son wants our grandchildren to believe in Santa. How do we respond to a grandchild who asks of the reality of Santa? I will not lie, but I want to keep peace with my son.

Thank you for being a godly grandma!

I think the solution to this dilemma is going to start with being a godly mom. Is your son a Believer? If so, you might want to show him all of the information above and talk to him about any Scriptures he’s violating. Let’s pray that will be convicting to him and he’ll decide to handle Santa in a godly way with your grandchildren.

But if he’s not convinced, or if he’s not a Believer, talk to him about your convictions about not lying to his children. Explain the difficult position he’s putting you in. He’s essentially asking you to choose between pleasing him by sinning (lying) or pleasing God by not sinning.

If he still won’t relent, the only solution I can see that keeps you from sinning yet doesn’t go against your son’s wishes is to put it back on him. When your grandchild comes to you and asks, “Grandma, is Santa Claus real?” you reply, “That’s a great question, but I think you should ask your mom and dad about that. How about some hot chocolate?”.

Your son made this bed. You shouldn’t have to lie in it.

Additional Resources:

Santa Pause with Justin Peters at A Word Fitly Spoken

¹Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town. John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, 1934.

If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.

Christmas

Elizabeth’s Gift

December 23, 2020December 17, 2024 Michelle Lesley

Sometimes I think that if Elizabeth’s story had happened back in the Old Testament, we’d spend much more time on it than we do and be much more amazed by it than we are. Instead, we kind of tend to regard her as a footnote in the Christmas story, overshadowed by the story of Jesus’ incarnation.

And I’m sure Elizabeth is totally fine with that. Like her own son said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

But Elizabeth’s story is a rich gift to Christ’s birth narrative, adding wonder and awe to the divine beauty of the tale. It is also God’s gift to us as Christian women, giving us a sister in Christ to look up to and learn from.

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
Luke 1:5-7

Elizabeth was righteous before God. She walked blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. Like you and me, she wasn’t perfect. She still fell into sin. But because she loved the Lord, she repented, and strove to live her life to please Him.

But Elizabeth also knew sorrow. She and Zechariah had no child. She had been barren for all of her childbearing years, and now she was elderly – some scholars estimate at least 60 years old – and long past menopause.

If you or someone you know has ever experienced the heartbreak of infertility, you know just how painful that is. And in biblical times, culture added insult to injury in a lot of ways. It was assumed any infertility was a problem with the woman, when today we know that men can also be infertile.

Because children are a blessing from the Lord and the fruit of the womb is a reward, and because God sometimes closed the wombs of certain women in Scripture as a result of sin – it was often assumed that if you weren’t having children you were cursed by God, or your barrenness was some sort of punishment for sin.

And in addition to all of that, in that day and time, women were “low man on the totem pole” so to speak. They were regarded as less than men in practically every way- intelligence, abilities, worth, and so on. They couldn’t testify in court because their testimony wasn’t considered credible. And, maybe you’ve even heard of the daily prayer that Jewish men still say today, thanking God for not creating them a gentile…a slave…or a woman.

So, practically the only way women of that time could achieve a modicum of respect and status in society was by marrying well and by having sons. And, though she did marry well, Elizabeth didn’t have any children.

Try to imagine being a woman of Elizabeth’s time, having all of that on your shoulders, and having virtually no power to do anything about it.

Do you think you might be a little bitter toward God?

“Lord, my husband’s a priest! We can’t go around having people think you’ve cursed us.”

“We’ve been serving You all these years, and all we’ve asked for is a baby. You owe us.”

“You’re not going to give me the one thing I want most in life? Forget it – there are plenty of other gods to worship. I’ll go serve one of them.”

But not Elizabeth. Elizabeth just kept getting up day after day, trusting the Lord, serving the Lord, obeying the Lord.

And let’s not forget, we know the rest of the story. We know God is going to miraculously open Elizabeth’s womb and she’ll be the mother of John the Baptist. We know she’s going to be one of the first people to learn the good news of the Messiah. We know she’s going to be celebrated and famous across the world once her story gets into Scripture.

Elizabeth didn’t know that. For all those years faithfully following and trusting the Lord, she didn’t know any of that. For all she knew, she was going to die childless and in obscurity, quickly to be forgotten even by those who knew her. And yet she still chose to walk faithfully with the Lord.

Elizabeth was faithful to God because of who God is, not for what she could get out of Him. She served God to get more of God, not to get the goodies.

But look what happens next…

Now while [Zechariah] was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense…And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense…the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
Luke 1:8-9,11,13

Zechariah has the great honor of entering the temple and burning incense. Suddenly – a miracle! Gabriel, who stands in the very presence of God Himself, has brought the amazing news that Elizabeth – barren and past her time – is going to give birth to the forerunner of the Messiah.

And Zechariah doesn’t believe it.

But Elizabeth does…

Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.
Luke 1:25

Elizabeth believed God.

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.”
Luke 1:39-45

The newly pregnant Mary comes for a visit. The Holy Spirit reveals to and through Elizabeth that the baby Mary is carrying is the Messiah. And, once again, in great humility, Elizabeth believes Him: “Who am I, that my Lord should come to me?” Elizabeth wondered.

Indeed – who are any of us, that our Lord should come to us?

Elizabeth did not seek out Jesus. He came to find her. So, we who were dead in our sins and trespasses did not seek Him. He came to us, to seek and to save that which was lost.

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
Luke 1:57-60

It’s a boy! What a joy-filled day it must have been. This wasn’t just any birth. It was God’s promise fulfilled. It was God’s mercy to Elizabeth, His blameless – yet not sinless – and undeserving child. It was God’s blessing to Elizabeth, His faithful servant. The same kind of mercy and blessings He shows us, His faithful, yet undeserving sons and daughters. The same way He fulfills His promises to us.

The time quickly came to circumcise and officially name the baby. Tradition dictated that he be named after Dad: Zechariah. But Elizabeth believed all that God had revealed about this baby to the point that she put her foot down, broke with tradition and insisted, along with her husband, that the baby be named John. It wasn’t about what she wanted. It wasn’t about what others thought was best. It was all about God, and what He wanted.

All of these unbelievable things happening to Elizabeth, yet Elizabeth believes God. Obeys God. Trusts God. She trusted and obeyed God all of those years when He said no, and she believed and obeyed Him after He said yes.

May we, as godly women, be daughters of Elizabeth: Believing God through the unbelievable. Trusting Him in times of uncertainty. Obeying Him in the face of opposition.

What a legacy this dear sister has left us.

What a gift.