I’d thought I was long past the possibility of having children. Sometimes it got me down, made me feel that I’d done something wrong. At least Zechariah, my husband, had his work at the temple. But in a culture where success, status, fulfillment depended on having children, there was little for me.
That was until Zechariah came home from the temple that day, literally struck dumb. Eventually we found a way to communicate and he told what had happened to him- that he’d seen an angel who had told him that I would bear him a son who was to be called John. Not just that, but our John would be a special child. Like the prophets of olden times, he would be blessed with God’s Spirit, to remind people of what being God’s people was supposed to mean.
No wonder Zechariah was speechless. It was hard enough to believe it myself until the unbelievable happened. But I wasn’t the only woman in Israel with an unexpected pregnancy. My little cousin Mary came to visit about three months before the birth. She’d just found out she was expecting too. When Mary arrived, John wriggled and squirmed inside me, just at the sound of her voice. He knew, somehow, what I would only understand later. Her baby was even more special than mine. He was the one that my John would be preparing the way for, the one foretold by prophets like Isaiah, the heir of David, the one who would restore the relationship between people and God.
When John arrived, Zechariah found his voice again in praising God. I wasn’t far behind him. It was a day I’ll never forget.
See Luke 1 for Elizabeth & Zechariah's story.
The third candle on the advent ring represents John the Baptist. Jesus' cousin (on his mother's side) and only a few months older than him, John seems to have much in common with the Old Testament prophets, with a mission of 'preparing the way' for Jesus and pointing people to him.
His mother and father are the stars of this particular story though. It echoes a number of Old Testament stories of parents who struggled to conceive (Sarah & Abraham, Rachel & Jacob, Hannah & Elkanah) but eventually had a child who played a major part in the Bible story (Isaac, Joseph, the prophet Samuel) as a reminder that even the most unlikely people can find themselves being used by God. It's also a stark contrast to Mary's unexpected pregnancy, and the picture of Mary going to Elizabeth, probably desperate to get away from Nazareth gossip, and being greeted with joy and blessing and understanding is lovely- we all need support, and it's good to see Mary being provided with that.
