Last week we saw the fulfillment of the promise; God had come to dwell again with His people. But before we speed along into the public ministry of Jesus and the Kingdom He brought with Him, it’s good to take a step back and look at why His coming meant so much to the people who had waited for centuries for Him to come.

Luke opens with a familiar sounding story; a righteous couple, advanced in age and carrying the sorrow of childlessness for years. It reminds me of Abraham and Sarah. For years they had prayed and lived with silence in return. It had been generations since Israel had heard a prophetic word from God. The nation is waiting … this couple is waiting and the story seems … stalled.
 
Then, out of nowhere, everything changes.

Zechariah is performing his duties in the temple when an angel appears and announces that God hasn’t forgotten His people, a familiar refrain by now on our journey. More specifically, the angel told Zechariah he and Elizabeth’s prayer for a child would be answered and he would prepare the way for the Messiah. What started as a quiet, uneventful day in the life turned out to be the beginning of one of the greatest turning points in the story of redemption.
Even though they were righteous and faithful, neither of them saw this coming. Years of waiting looked more like years of delay. But from God’s perspective He was moving the story perfectly along its intended path.

Most of us have experienced the feeling of standing in the space between promise and fulfillment. We pray, and we pray hard and often. We hope and then we wait. It’s easy to feel like nothing is happening at all.
 
Luke reminds us God’s work is often hidden before we have any hint of what He’s up to. Just because we can’t see the work doesn’t mean the work isn’t happening. He works in spaces we can’t see, assuring outcomes we can’t even imagine.
 
When our son, Eli, was murdered in 2023, he was just beginning to get his life back on track from dealing with years of trauma, addiction, and pain from spending most of his life in the foster care system. We were proud of how far he had come, but his spiritual life was more of mystery to us at this time … but we prayed and we hoped.
 
At his funeral, I struggled with what to say, how to articulate hope in an uncertain spiritual situation. Then, as people poured in to a standing room only gathering, and spent over an hour filing by one by one telling us story after story of how his life had touched theirs. Stories we’d never heard, impacted we could never see, lives changed by his kindness even when he struggled with his own. God was at work in the shadows redeeming what seemed lost.

In today’s story, the arrival of John would announce the coming of Jesus. The silence was never evidence of God’s absence, it was the backdrop against which His faithfulness would be revealed.

When have you felt most tempted to believe that nothing is happening, that prayers aren’t being answered while you wait? How can Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story challenge that?

Father, sometimes, in fact many times, I can’t see what you are doing. In those times, help me to trust you. Teach me to remember that your plan is never, ever stalled, even when my circumstances feel stagnant. Strengthen me as I wait for you. Amen.