Luke 1:63-64 He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God.

This is one of my favorite “sub-plots” of the Christmas story, because I have a lot of empathy with Zechariah. He had spent nine months mute, to teach him that God does not speak idly, but during that time he had obviously communicated with his wife Elizabeth, probably a great deal, on various levels. It is very impressive that she was the first to insist that the baby be given the name assigned by the angel, even though she hadn’t been there to hear it in person. Then we get to Zechariah himself, and when he is obedient to what he had been told, he is released from the muteness that had been imposed to teach him faith. I certainly don’t doubt that he praised God! God allows us to go through all sorts of things to teach us to trust and obey Him, but He is never malicious about it. I’m sure that Zechariah gained all sorts of blessings over those nine months, even though growing faith was the greatest of them. He was being prepared to be John’s father indeed, not just biologically, and John’s later career shows that he did a pretty good job of it. We don’t know how old any of them were when Zechariah died, but since he was already “an old man” at the time of John’s birth, they might not have had very many years together. However, he made good use of the time he had, and as the saying goes, “the rest is history.”

I’m certainly challenged in my own faith by this story. How well do I live in expectant obedience to God? A pastor friend of mine preached on this story just this past Sunday. I’d like to ask him for a copy of the recording! I am greatly blessed to have a high level of communication and unity with my wife, and her faith is a real boost to mine. We are to encourage each other in faith and obedience to God, as Zechariah and Elizabeth obviously did, and leave the results up to Him. We have indeed “birthed” spiritual children who “proclaim in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” (John 1:23) That is a high privilege, and we want to birth more! However, as any mother will testify, giving birth is painful business. We are not to run from the “birth pains,” but keep trusting God who is in control of it all, so that His plans may indeed be fulfilled on His schedule for His glory.

Father, thank You again for what You are doing, even if the process can be painful for us at times. Thank You for the answers we are seeing, and for the ones we don’t see yet. Help us wait patiently for the latter, trusting and rejoicing in You so that we won’t miss one blessing because of being focused on the timing of another. May Your Name be hallowed in all we say and do and are, so that Your kingdom may come as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!