Today's Scripture
One Year Bible Daily Reading – Esther 1-2; Luke 12:1-31
Scripture: Luke 1:57-66
57 When the time came for Elizabeth to have her child, she gave birth to a boy. 58 Her neighbors and relatives celebrated with her because they had heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy. 59 On the eighth day, it came time to circumcise the child. They wanted to name him Zechariah because that was his father’s name. 60 But his mother replied, “No, his name will be John.”
61 They said to her, “None of your relatives have that name.” 62 Then they began gesturing to his father to see what he wanted to call him.
63 After asking for a tablet, he surprised everyone by writing, “His name is John.” 64 At that moment, Zechariah was able to speak again, and he began praising God.
65 All their neighbors were filled with awe, and everyone throughout the Judean highlands talked about what had happened. 66 All who heard about this considered it carefully. They said, “What then will this child be?” Indeed, the Lord’s power was with him.
What does this passage mean to me/us?
Contributed by John Shockley
I chose this scripture with the choir’s trip to Carnegie Hall in mind. Our biggest, most meaningful and most difficult piece at the concert is “The Magnificat.” This is Mary’s hymn of praise to God for blessing her with the miracle of being the Savior’s mother. This is captured in Luke 1: 46-55. This was the closest scripture that I could choose since I waited until the last minute to volunteer. (That should teach me not to procrastinate!) Today’s passage immediately follows the Magnificat. The birth of John has just happened. The humble and faithful Zachariah and Elizabeth have their prayer answered with the birth of their long-awaited son. The friends and family who comforted them during their years of infertility and now celebrating and excited to learn the baby’s name! The crowd expected him to be named Zachariah after his father. God had taken Zachariah’s ability to speak early in the pregnancy when he doubted that it could be true. That’s quite an affliction for a priest. But, the moment that he and Elizabeth agree to follow Gabriel’s instruction to name the baby John, his tongue is free and his speech has returned. How amazed the crowd must have been! The crowd had so much to be amazed about. The elderly couple were able to have a child, Zachariah can talk again and the name for the child is not at all what they expected.
We, like Zachariah and Elizabeth have many things that happen to us that we do not understand. God’s message to us is to be faithful, humble and patient. His timing is perfect and He knows what we need more that we do. He has our back if we will do those things. When we try to be in control, we just tend to mess things up. Pray more, worry less and listen for His answers, even if it takes longer than we think it should. He’s got this!
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