Unwrapping Advent: Through Voices of Wisdom Dec. 26
Thursday, December 26, 2024
Day 26
67 The Holy Spirit came upon Zechariah,
and he began to speak:
68 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel!
He has come to save his people.
69 Our God has given us a mighty Savior
from the family of David his servant.
70 Long ago the Lord promised
by the words of his holy prophets
71 to save us from our enemies
and from everyone who hates us.
72 God said he would be kind to our people
and keep his sacred promise.
***
78 God’s love and kindness will shine upon us
like the sun that rises in the sky.
Luke 1:67-72, 78 CEB
Saving Love: Making the Impossible Possible
Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were old and had no children. Elizabeth was from the family of Aaron and had prayed for years to have a child. Zechariah, a priest chosen to go into the Lord’s temple to burn incense, encountered an angel of the Lord who said,
13Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayers. Your wife Elizabeth will have a son, and you must name him John. 14His birth will make you very happy, and many people will be glad. 15Your son will be a great servant of the Lord. He must never drink wine or beer, and the power of the Holy Spirit will be with him from the time he is born. 16John will lead many people in Israel to turn back to the Lord their God. 17He will go ahead of the Lord with the same power and spirit that Elijah had. And because of John, parents will be more thoughtful of their children.
And people who now disobey God will begin to think as they ought to.
This is how John will get people ready for the Lord.
Luke 1:13-17, CEB
Because Elizabeth was old, Zechariah expressed doubt about the possibility of her bearing a child and was stricken mute.
Zechariah had nine months to think about how he had doubted the Lord. Although coming from a family of priests, he had doubted that God’s love and grace made the impossible possible.
I often thought about why my father, who died at the age of 72, was taken from us so young. Every morning when I woke and went to the breakfast table, he was reading the Bible, openly praying, or preparing a Sunday school lesson. He was extremely active and loyal to our church, serving as a deacon, adult Sunday school teacher, choir member, and a pillar in our farm community. Cancer was discovered when he was not healing from an auto accident. It quickly metastasized to his brain. Within months he died.
I witnessed my father become angry with God. Why was he being cheated out of seeing his grandkids grow up? Why was he burdened with dying early when sinful people thrived?
After a period of pity, my father changed his anger to a testimony. When kindhearted people visited him, he would say, “Don’t feel bad for me. I’m going to heaven. I want you to meet me there. I’ll be waiting for you. Meet me there.”
Daddy died on July 16, 1993. On Sunday, October 4, 1993, my thirteen-year-old niece Katie accidentally stepped in front of an oncoming car. Katie died instantly. She was full of life, and it seemed impossible for my brother and sister-in-law to move forward mentally. However, it gave them and our family solace to know that Katie’s loving Grandpa Newton was there to meet her during her life beyond death. I think it is the only way we made it through that year of family tragedy.
Like Zechariah, who grew up in a religious family, worked in the temple, and had a relationship with God, why do we doubt that through God, the impossible is possible? Why do we have to have all the pieces of the puzzle in front of us to move forward? We pray but doubt our prayers will ever come to us. We wait for a predictable answer to our prayers. Yet, we have the knowledge from stories in the Bible of how God works to make the impossible possible.
Reflect: Is God asking you to take a leap of faith? Is He putting something on your heart that you think is impossible because of your skill set, lack of confidence, or stubbornness for perfection? How is He calling you to think differently about the impossible in His hands?
Pray: God, I know that through You all things are possible, even what I think is impossible. Help me to lose my fear of the unknown. Help me to focus this season on loving my neighbors, taking care of the less fortunate, and doing Your work. Open my eyes to those in need in our local community. Take away my doubt; I am enough to do the work You put before me.
Ron Worley
Finance Committee Chair
Discipleship Team