Infinitum Family Advent, Week 4Egzanp

Before Jesus was born, his aunt would have a baby even though she was too old for that to happen (except God does surprising things all the time!). When Elizabeth (that’s Jesus’ aunt) heard about the baby she would have, she knew immediately it was God at work. When Jesus’ uncle Zechariah heard about it, he struggled to believe God could do such a surprising thing. We probably shouldn’t judge Zechariah. We might have done the same thing! But when Zechariah had doubts, God did ANOTHER surprising thing: He put Zechariah’s voice on time out! WHAT?! That’s a thing?

You might be tempted to picture God being disappointed & using this as a punishment for Zechariah. But apparently, that’s not how Zechariah saw it. I’m sure it wasn’t easy to be unable to talk for many months, but while we don’t know how Zechariah felt during those months, we do know that the first thing he did when God gave him his voice back was THANK GOD! Huh. Who knew?!

Here’s a cool part of the story: Zechariah got his voice back after his son was born, and Zechariah agreed with God & Elizabeth on the baby’s name: John (which was a weird choice at the time because most families named their kid after people in their family & there were no John’s around).

This baby turned out to be an incredible preacher. He taught a TON of people about Jesus; he gave people hope and helped them follow God’s plans for their life. And ‘weird’ didn’t stop with his name. John’s food & clothing choices were weird his whole life. But weird (John) and surprising (God) are kinda related; God loved the weirdness of John and loved to work with him.

Zechariah didn’t know all of this when John was just a baby! But God did. Zechariah struggled to get on board with God’s surprising plans & sometimes, we do, too, because we can’t know how the story ends when we’re just at the beginning.

So let’s flex the mind muscles that can help us trust God even when things happen that don’t make sense. For instance, let’s say a vacation you had planned for next month just got canceled… can you think of a way (or two) that this might be a surprising work of God?

What about your teacher assigning you to work on a group project with someone from your class who you don’t enjoy… can you think of a way (or two) this might be a surprising work of God?

How about if you found out your mom got a new job in a different city and you’ll be moving in a couple of months… can you think of a way (or two or ten) that this might be a surprising work of God?

Even if these scenarios aren’t true—or even if it wasn’t God who told your teacher to put so-and-so in your workgroup on the project—practicing the skill of looking for God’s surprising work builds the mind muscles that help us get on board with God’s surprising work when it shows up in our lives.

Is there a situation in your life right now where God might be doing a surprising work?

Can you imagine how God might do a surprising work somewhere in your Christmas ‘story’ this year?

Try Zechariah’s timeout on for size. Try being silent with your family or friends for one whole minute… was it hard? Why?