When Seeing is Believing Luke 1:21-25

“Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a  vision in the temple for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.” (Luke 1:21-25) NIV

Random Thoughts:

Never one to waste an opportunity (even a mess of our own making), God demonstrates to Zechariah that His power not only extends to the wonders of the universe but even (yes hard as it can be to imagine) to human physiology itself. Like something out of a Cosmic Biology 101, God wields His power over Zechariah’s voice, communicating by its absence all the more loudly to the people waiting for news outside the Temple that God is very much at work.

News of God’s power would have spread even more once people learned that barren Elizabeth, far into her old age, was with child. God had left no room for what-if’s; this child was a miracle child from His hand alone. In Elizabeth’s weakness--her older age and barren history--His power became irrefutable. 

As John would grow to become an usual prophet--eating locusts, wild honey and living in the dessert, no less--the miraculous aspects of his birth would have assured those around him that whatever his unorthodox ways, his words and his message were from God Himself. 

Question:

Is there a “touchstone of faith” story in your life? Something you recognize as coming from God alone that affirms your life’s direction when it doesn’t seem to make sense?

Journal Response:
God doesn't ask me to do unreasonable things too often, but those few times He has and I have actually followed through (not without my share of mumbling and whining, of course), He has amazed me. Writing this blog is one of them only I don't know the outcome so I won't go down that track. I'm still in the mumbling stage.

However, there is one touchstone moment of faith  in my life where I have had the relief of seeing the "rest of the story" and it was unbelievable. I guess that was the whole point. It happened in the spring of May, 1988.

My parents must have thought I was out of my mind. At moments I wondered too. After flying in from England for my college graduation in Grinnell, Iowa, they looked on with dismay as I told them my plans. I was going to take a job paying $12,000 a year working for a Christian magazine 300 miles away. Never mind that I had no car, no money, no place to live and no plan for how to accomplish any of it. God had given me the job, I explained. I was counting on Him to have a plan for the rest.

And apparently He did. For my parents, who did not share my Christian faith, amazement grew as door after door seemed to open “magically” before us. By the end of the first day in my new home town God had given me an apartment I shouldn’t have been able to afford, a christian roommate I shouldn’t have found and a car that was too good to be true. That night as we reflected on the incredible events of the day, my mother asked with an almost childlike bewilderment, “Why does everything work out for you?”  “It doesn’t,” I remember responding. “This wasn’t about me. This was about God. I know He wants me here.”  

I knew the Lord had done this for me. Now they did too.

The next day, my first Sunday with my new roommate in my new life, God introduced me to my forever-roommate, my future husband, fellow trouble-maker and love of my life. The course of my life changed in directions I never could have imagined and we have been on an adventure of sorts ever since. 

I don’t always have the courage to let God take the lead. Quite frankly it feels safer to do things in my own strength and like any good type B+ personality, I almost always plan before I leap. If I always did that, however, when would God’s power be revealed for what it truly is? When would people be able to see that God (and not me and my great planning skills) is still in the business of running the Universe and worthy of our eternal trust? 

Paul said in his letter to the Corinithians, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” When we are brave enough--strong enough--to step out in obedience to God, stretching us beyond our comfort zone, beyond what makes sense to a world with all the answers, then God’s power can be revealed for what it truly is. Amazing.