Week 47 --- Luke 1:5-7

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.


I love the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. It might be up there as one of my favorites in all of scripture. The story goes that Zechariah got to go to the temple for his yearly duties as a priest. While he was there, his name was drawn out of a hat (or whatever they drew names out of back then) that signified that he got to go into a sacred place and light incense. This was his once in a lifetime chance to do this.


Back to the scripture above, where it all starts, we learn that both Zechariah and Elizabeth are good people. They try to do what's right. They observe the Lord's commands --- and at this point they would have been observing Old Testament laws, which would keep a person pretty busy trying to keep up with--- but even with their desire to do things right, they didn't have any children and this was a huge problem.


My favorite part of the scripture is just after the verses above when Zechariah is in the temple.


¹³ But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴ He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”


I read somewhere that when Zechariah went in to light the incense he would have without a doubt prayed for the coming of the Messiah. It had been like 800 years since God had spoken to them, and they anxiously prayed and awaited his return. So this is where the story starts to really touch my heart, because I think that when Zechariah had his one chance, his one opportunity in his lifetime to pray in the temple, he was praying for Elizabeth. I don't think he even knew what to pray for her, but he knew that she had tried to do everything right and life still just hadn't worked out for her.


The story goes on to tell us that Elizabeth, who's like 80, gets pregnant and has a son. John the Baptist. After a lifetime of difficulty, God provided. I love that Zechariah's name means "the Lord remembers"


The point that hits home for me with this story is that nothings happened naturally for Zechariah and Elizabeth. While all their friends are having kids, they can't. While all their friends are having grandchilren, it's still just the two of them. I can relate with people that don't come by things naturally. And I'm not saying I have it rough, I'm just saying that if there's a difficult or hard way to do something I usually pick that, and even outside of my own decisions, I don't generally fall into great situations naturally.


But that's where it gets really cool. Since life doesn't happen naturally for these guys, they get the unbelievable and uncomparable opportunity to be a part of God providing for them supernaturally. Does that make sense? God will provide. The Lord remembers. In a life of situations that feel hard and unfair, the Lord remembers.


I've been thinking about this a lot this Christmas season. I keep hearing the song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and there's a certain line that I can't shake.


Next year all our troubles will be miles away...


I can't stop thinking about the people that are going through this Christmas, just hoping that next year will be a little easier. If you are one of these people, I love you. And the Lord remembers you too. My sweet single friends that know what it feels like to fall asleep alone on Christmas night, or make the humbling drive home to the family events alone. The girl that works for me that didn't know her family member that just got out of jail will be attending family Christmas this year. People that just need to put a little more distance between this year and the hard memories that are still painful to think about. The Lord Remembers. I can't promise you that next year will be better, but I can promise you He'll never forget you and how you're feeling this Christmas.


Through a random random twist of fate (or possibly Jesus lining up exactly the moment I needed this Christmas) I found myself chatting with the family of the President of Columbia's second in command secret service officer. Random huh? They brought a traditional dessert that I've had a few times in Mexico and it always makes me smile.

Apparently there's a song in Hispanic Folklore that says something like, "Rice with Milk ... I want to marry a man that can sing...." LOL! Serve it up... :)

 My dad has begun a ministry that reaches out to International Students, and Columbia has an exchange program with the university in Kearney where they send a lot of their police officers and intelligence personnel to help them learn English. We invited this non-English speaking family to our house for Christmas Eve lunch --- there family of 4 was excited to have another brother and sister visiting from Columbia for the holidays, so we had Mom, Dad, 2 kids and the brother and sister of the mom with us. They had two little girls and we tried to keep them entertained while the adults talked.

I was sitting on the floor with the kids and their mom and we tried our best to communicate through her broken english and my limited spanish. I asked about her family in Columbia and what they would be doing for the holidays. She told me that they would not be able to come visit because they had already used the visas available to them to come to the US earlier that year. She shared with me that her sister had died 5 months ago due to an infection she developed during her pregnancy.  She pointed over to the woman at the table and she told me that it was much harder for her because she was her twin sister and today was their birthday. In my best spanish I told her that I am praying for her today.

We got the little girls together in the kitchen to put a little "sopreza" together for the birthday we didn't know about --- and by sopreza I mean sticking 3 birthday candles in a christmas cookie and singing as we carried it out. As we finished the song, the tears flowed.

Celebrating your first birthday without your twin sister on Christmas Eve in a faraway country? I need to know that the Lord Remembers us in these moments.


When her sister was telling me this story she could not stop herself from saying "but our God is very big" and "we have strong God". She's the one on the end here...

And I think I can see the peace on her face. Next year all our troubles will be far away? Who knows. But if in the midst of a painful painful year, I could speak as confidently as she did (in a second language) that God provides.... I think that's the experience of a lifetime.

I have loved thinking about Zechariah and Elizabeth throughout the busy holiday season. I tend to feel pretty sorry for myself around Christmas, but their story has been a constant reminder that God provides. That even if things don't come about naturally, that just means that God has an opportunity to intervene supernaturally. I also love her name.... cause it's my name too :) If I could share in even just a tiny fraction of her faith and legacy through our common name, what a blessed woman I would be.

It's getting late on Christmas Eve and my eyes are starting to close on their own. I hope you do have yourself a merry little Christmas. I hope faithful friends who are dear to you, gather near to you, once more. :) Have a wonderful day friends!! Hope to see you all soon!

Beth