Feeling Like Zechariah

I prepared a Sunday school lesson that I never got to teach. I lost my voice. The ironic part is that the lesson was about Zechariah.

Zechariah faithfully served God in the temple, but he yearned for that one gift God hadn’t given him – a son. The angel Gabriel appeared to him and said his prayer was heard. His wife would have a son. But Zechariah, like so many of us, argued with God. “This can’t be,” he said. “We’re too old.” Since Zechariah didn’t believe, he lost his voice. He couldn’t speak for nine months until his son was born.

Someone else in the Christmas story was silent even longer. That Someone was God. When the ink dried on Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, God chose silence for 400 years. Why? We don’t know. Maybe He realized that we weren’t ready for what He had to say.

Our God is patient. He waited. And waited. And when the time was right, He didn’t shout from afar. He sent His Son to earth. The Word became flesh.

I’m frustrated with my inability to speak right now. I would love to have my voice back for Christmas. I wonder if God was frustrated with His silence, longing for the day when we would be ready to hear Him.

Are you troubled by the silence of God this Christmas? Has He withheld the one thing you yearn for? Take comfort in the Christmas story. God is still there. His heart longs for you; and when the time is right, He will break His silence.