I learned a hard lesson on my 9th birthday. I dreamed of getting a light blue 3 speed bicycle that I had previously seen a neighbor riding. My dad took me to the bike shop on my birthday to pick out my new bike. As we looked at all the options it became evident that a light blue bike was not available to take home that day. I had a choice, I could either order one and wait 10+ days for it to arrive or I could leave right then and there with a puke green “old lady” model. In my immaturity, I chose that green bicycle. I still remember the sinking feeling when I got home and rode around on that new bike, I felt remorse and yearning for what I really wanted… that light blue bike! To this day I use this story with my kids. We call it “green bicycle syndrome”. When you want something so bad, but you settle for something less because you don’t want to wait. This lesson taught me to wait for the best, not settle. Waiting that 10 days would have been hard, but I can’t imagine how happy I would have been going to pick up my dream bike and riding it around the neighborhood. I missed out on that enjoyment because I was not patient in my waiting. Am I good at waiting now? Nope, but I always have a reminder in that ugly green bike!
I could ask all kinds of questions about what you are waiting for right now (a new job?, a child? a spouse? a call from the Dr?). But for the first time since 1918 (the last pandemic) we all have one thing in common and are all waiting on the same thing! We can’t wait for this pandemic to be OVER! Now, will it truly ever be over and we go back to a “normal” life? Probably not, but at this point we all want any glimpse of normal we can find! It is easy to get impatient and frantic at times dealing with all the changes, but we see in Luke 1:5-13 a different example of waiting.
In this advent season we are waiting on the miraculous birth of Jesus. Yet, when we look at the book of Luke, we see he did not start with the story of Jesus. He started further back in God’s plan of preparation. Luke begins in chapter 1 verse 5 introducing us to Zechariah and Elizabeth, a couple old enough to have quit expecting children.
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.
Luke 1:5-7
They probably wondered why God had not blessed them with children, why their faithfulness to God was unnoticed and unrewarded. In their culture, childlessness was regarded as a curse for sin of some kind. In verse 25, Elizabeth calls it her “disgrace.”
As devout Jews, Zechariah and Elizabeth had long prayed and hoped for a child and certainly it seemed that God would never answer their prayers. And then, one day, Zechariah who was a priest and was on duty in the temple, heard an angel of the Lord speak to him and share the unexpected. After such a long period of waiting, Elizabeth was pregnant. Their hopes, longings and prayers were finally coming to fruition.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 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.
Luke 1:11-13
What do we do in the waiting? Do we become impatient and try to fulfill our longings on our own, as I did with the green bike? Or do we, as Zechariah and Elizabeth did, wait on God to respond to our prayers and longings? Zechariah was an Israelite priest and was on duty in the temple when he learned that Ezlizbeth was pregnant. He was living out his life in service and in faith. How do we live while we wait?
Even though Zechariah and Elizabeth might have thought that God had given up on them and forgotten about their pleas, prayers and hopes. God was faithful to them just as God would be faithful to the Israelites and their prayer for a Messiah in the coming of Jesus. It was a beautiful reminder to them and to us that we can be assured that even when we have to wait for our hopes and dreams to come true, we can be sure that this does not mean that God is not active and at work in our lives.
Do we remain active and faithful to God in the midst of our waiting? Waiting for life to return to “normal”? I love how the Bible is so good at reminding us through these stories that God is faithful and steadfast in caring for us, even if it is not on our timetable. Including today, we have 13 days to wait till Christmas, the day we celebrate the promise of and fulfillment of the Messiah. May we spend these days reading the promises of God and reflecting on His Word.