The Three Wise Women of Christmas

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 

– Luke 1: 41-43

When we think of wisdom in the Christmas story, our imaginations often leap to the Magi—mysterious travelers from the East who followed a star across deserts and kingdoms. Their gifts, their journey, and their discernment have long captured Christian imagination. Yet Scripture offers us another trio of wise figures, woven quietly but powerfully into the nativity narrative: Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna. 

These three women embody a wisdom not marked by scholarly learning or worldly prestige, but by faith, surrender, and prophetic hope. Together, they reveal the deeper spiritual landscape of Christmas.

They do not arrive with caravans or treasures. They do not stand before kings or consult celestial signs. Their wisdom emerges in hidden places—within homes, in temple courts, and in the intimate spaces where God’s voice is heard by those attuned to it. Their stories remind us that divine wisdom often grows in the soil of ordinary lives, in hearts willing to listen, trust, and wait.

Elizabeth: The Wisdom of Recognition

Elizabeth shows us the wisdom of recognition—the ability to perceive God’s movement even when it arrives in unexpected form. Her spiritual sensitivity was not born overnight. It was shaped through years of prayer, disappointment, and persistent hope. 

She had every reason to believe her story was settled. Age had closed certain doors. Silence had stretched long. Yet her heart remained open enough to recognize God when He moved—first in her own miraculous pregnancy, and then even more profoundly in Mary’s.

God’s movement rarely fits our expectations. It often comes disguised:

• in timing that feels too late,
• in people we might overlook,
• in circumstances that seem impossible,
• in whispers rather than thunder.

Elizabeth teaches us to look for God in the small and surprising, to trust the Spirit’s prompting even when logic lags behind, and to celebrate God’s work in others without envy or hesitation.

When Mary enters her home, Elizabeth does not need explanations or proof. The child within her leaps, and she discerns the presence of the Messiah before He has spoken a word or performed a miracle. She sees divinity wrapped in the ordinariness of a young, unwed girl from Nazareth. Her wisdom is not merely knowledge of Scripture but attunement to the God who still speaks.

Elizabeth models a faith sharpened—not shattered—by disappointment. A faith that remains watchful. A faith that can say, “God is here,” even when His arrival looks nothing like what we imagined.

Mary: The Wisdom of Surrender

Mary reveals the wisdom of surrender—the courage to say yes to God’s disruptive grace. Grace does not always arrive gently or conveniently. Sometimes it breaks into our lives like a holy interruption, unsettling our plans, rearranging our expectations, and calling us into a future we never imagined.

Mary’s yes was not spoken from comfort or certainty. It was spoken into the unknown. Her yes meant embracing a pregnancy she could not explain, a calling she did not seek, and a path that would lead her through both wonder and sorrow. It meant risking misunderstanding, judgment, and even danger. Yet she trusted that God’s grace—though disruptive—was also redemptive.

Divine grace rarely leaves things as they are. It overturns, reorders, and transforms. It calls us out of the familiar and into the faithful. When the angel announces a calling that will upend her reputation, her relationships, and her future, Mary does not respond with naïve enthusiasm. She responds with brave openness. Her yes is spoken in the tension between fear and faith. It is a yes that costs something. A yes that risks misunderstanding. A yes that invites both miracle and mystery.

Mary’s surrender teaches us that God’s invitations often arrive disguised as disruptions, that obedience sometimes means stepping into a story we cannot yet see, and that grace may first feel like loss before it reveals itself as life. Her yes becomes a model for every disciple who senses God stirring something new. 

She shows us that surrender is not about relinquishing control for its own sake, but about trusting that God’s purposes are wiser, deeper, and more life‑giving than anything we could script for ourselves.

Anna: The Wisdom of Prophetic Hope 

Anna demonstrates the wisdom of prophetic hope—the perseverance to keep watching for redemption long after others have stopped looking (Luke 2:36-38). Her life is a testimony to a hope that refuses to expire. She has endured loss, widowhood, and the slow passing of years. Yet instead of allowing sorrow to harden her, she lets it sharpen her vision.

Anna becomes a woman who knows how to wait—not passively, but prayerfully. Not with bitterness, but with expectation. She positions herself in the temple day after day, night after night, trusting that God’s promises are not bound by her timeline.

When Mary and Joseph enter with the infant Jesus, Anna recognizes what many others miss: redemption has arrived, not with spectacle or power, but in the fragile form of a child. Her hope has trained her eyes to see what hurried hearts overlook.

Anna teaches us that waiting is not wasted when rooted in God’s faithfulness, that perseverance is a spiritual discipline, and that God often fulfills His promises quietly, in ways only the watchful will perceive.

A Different Kind of Wisdom

Together, these three women form a quiet counterpoint to the Wise Men of the East. While the Magi discern God through the stars, these women discern Him through the Spirit. While the Magi travel far to find the Christ child, these women prepare the spiritual landscape into which He is born.

Their wisdom is not spectacular, but steadfast. Not loud, but lasting. And it teaches us that the heart of Christmas is not only about God coming into the world, but about people—especially women—who were ready to receive Him.

 

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Pastor Godwin, FBC Danvers