The Ark of the Covenant had been lost in the time of the Babylonian exile. In that time Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord's presence depart from the temple, since the Ark itself was the focal point of that presence.
Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim (see Ezekiel 10:18).
Israel was meant to be the dwelling place of God upon the earth, the place that would bless all the nations by teaching them the knowledge of God. But the legacy of sin prevented Israel from fulfilling this vocation. God was not in her midst in the way he desired to be. So many years passed in that state, with "judgment against" Israel during which her enemies dominated her. There were years of discouragement where the true King of Israel was not in their midst in the way they knew he was meant to be. They had known of the glory cloud and felt its absence acutely. It was indeed as though a winter stretched on without end, or that rains continued leaving no time for growth, harvest, or flowers.
Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Now a new Ark had been filled with the Holy Spirit and overshadowed by the power of the Most High (see Luke 1:35). It is difficult to overstate how important this would have been.
What an unexpected shift, from the temple, with its inner divisions available only to those with status, the presence of God would now return, not upon the temple, but upon a humble and unknown virgin. Yet Mary was not merely an accidental element in the divine plan. She herself was untainted by sin and could therefore live the vocation at which Israel had failed, to be a dwelling place of God among his people. She did this with such complete consent of will, with such absence of resistance, that through her his presence was able to be made manifest in an entirely new and superior way.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
We no longer worship in the temple because we have been called instead by Jesus to worship in Spirit and truth (see John 4:21). Wasn't such worship exactly what Elizabeth experienced by welcoming Mary into her home, in recognizing in her the Ark of God's presence?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
The Holy Spirit is within us in a way similar to the presence of John in his mother, interceding for us with sighs and groanings too deep for words (see Romans 8:26). If we are attentive to the movements of the Spirit within us we will discover the depths of our need for the Messiah, for God to truly be Emmanuel for us. Discovering this, we too will leap for joy. No wonder Paul describes what is unfolding in ourselves and in creation as "labor pains" (see Romans 8:22).
Even if we understand this to some degree we should be convinced that we have not yet fully compassed just how good is this good news of the coming King. It is even better than lovers being united after a long separation, better than abandoned children finding themselves adopted into a royal household. The winter is nearly over. The flowers are already beginning to blossom. The figs of the Messianic age are appearing. Our truest love, the deepest desire of every heart, is almost here.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
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