Everyone is on the move in Luke’s birth narratives. Immediately you think of the journey of the Holy family from Galilee to Bethlehem. But there was a lot of traipsing about before that. Closely weaving together the stories of John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ births, Luke physically brings together the two mothers-to-be: Mary and Elizabeth. This meeting necessitates Mary going on an extraordinary journey. As a young, unmarried woman it would be highly unusual for Mary to go anywhere unaccompanied. This means not to the marketplace in her home village, much less on a seven mile trip up into the hills around Jerusalem in search of a distant relative.

Mary’s journey was in no way prescribed by the angel Gabriel when he came to her. The angelic visitor revealed Elizabeth’s pregnancy to Mary, but…