The First Light of Hope
Dr Justine Toh opens our Advent 2025 series with a reflection on the way love breaks through, just as light breaks through the darkness.
HSU-ANN KHOURY
For our fifteenth Advent 2025 devotional, Hsu-Ann Khoury reflects on the joy and comfort God’s revelation brings, even in challenging times.
More Than Meets the Eye
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
Luke 1:39-45
What strikes me as I read this familiar passage is how Elizabeth sees in this moment what no other human could possibly see:
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
In first century Palestine, the normal reaction to Mary being pregnant out of wedlock would not be positive. It might be fear, despair, concern or even judgment. But how does Elizabeth respond? With joy!
It’s the Spirit who reveals to Elizabeth that her young relative is carrying a child. And this is no ordinary child. The baby is none other than their long-awaited Messiah:
“…why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
Elizabeth has already experienced her own miracle: falling pregnant. God’s love broke through in her ageing body, broke through the shame and darkness of her childlessness. Now the Spirit shows her a second, greater miracle which fills her (and even the baby in her womb) with joy!
The baby leaped in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit … “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”
The Jewish people are still under Roman rule. Mary will likely still be subject to gossip as her pregnancy progresses. But God is up to something. His love has started breaking through for both women – and He’s only just getting started.
Elizabeth sees that God is at work not only in her too-old body, not only in young Mary’s body, but in the whole wide world. In this moment, she understands that God is fulfilling His promises to His people and she is filled with joy.
In my work with refugees, I see crises destroying lives, unjust policies, those who are marginalised continuing to be oppressed. My own efforts to pursue justice can feel insignificant and it can be hard to see that God is in control. Could He really, right now, be redeeming all of creation?
Elizabeth’s joy reminds me that as dark as the times are, something good – something much greater – has already begun and continues afoot. Although my human heart might experience deep sorrow over the suffering around me, I need not despair. There is comfort and joy for me here as I wait on God’s love to break through and make all things new.
Hsu-Ann Khoury has had justice on her heart since her teens. She was a Spanish teacher, missionary youth worker and research assistant before finding her sweet spot in nonprofit communications. Currently she works for Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS), a secular nonprofit providing critical legal help for people who have fled persecution to find safety and certainty in Australia. These views are her own.
This devotional is the fifteenth in a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2025 reflecting on the realities of our broken world along with the unshakable hope that love still breaks through. It explores how God’s love disrupts, heals, and transforms - breaking through darkness, despair, and injustice to bring light, joy, and renewal.
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Common Grace is a diverse movement of individuals, churches and communities passionate about Jesus and justice. We have come together as those from different Christian traditions who stand in the continuity of the historic Christian faith, centred on the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as witnessed to in holy scripture. This series highlights the diversity of followers of Jesus across these lands. These voices may not agree with one another (or with you), but they are each an expression of longing for the God whose love we see break through in Jesus.
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