Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.” They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.” Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.

When I was growing up in San Jose, I remember a commercial for Pete Ellis Dodge. It is probably the only one I can recite the lyrics to. It went like this: “That’s Pete Ellis Dodge, 1099 West El Camino Real, Sunnyvale”. Why do I remember this piece of seemingly meaningless info 40 years later? Sadly, I must admit, I became “mesmerized” and brain-focused on it. Well, they get some of the blame, they had a cute little jingle, the words on the bottom of the screen, and a bouncing ball moving from word to word. That ball really got my attention. The other interesting thing is that I don’t remember any of the cars they were selling or whether or not they were a good deal or cool cars, etc. I just remember the address.

I think the story of Zechariah is one that many of us can relate to. We, over time deal with disappointment and “grin and bear it”. We serve God faithfully and after a while give up on the dreams and hopes we once had for him to use us. The dot, the words, and the song represent the daily ways of our life. We sometimes focus on those and miss the big picture, in the case of the car dealership this was the cars for sale. Zechariah was focused on his ministry and so closed off to God in the topic of children, that he missed out on the initial joy God wanted him to experience when he announced to him he would be the father of the front-runner to the Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus. He had given up on the dream of having a child. And so when God presented this to him via an angel in old age, he may have thought it almost a cruel joke. He just did not believe. The sin of unbelief is one of the biggest sins we are guilty of. It is what keeps us living in our safety bubbles and from risking “all of the marbles” for His Kingdom work. And so God judged Zechariah and gave him a consequence — he took away his chief tool for his occupation … his speech. But now we find that the end of this judgment has come. Zechariah, like righteous people do, must have repented of this sin and got back on the righteous path. Because God now decided to bless him on the birth of his son with his speech being given back to him. And what does he do in response — he bursts out in song praising God! Now this is the joy that God was looking for. It is joy once absent, but now restored. But this was only done once he was obedient and named his son John, as instructed by the angel.

So, for all of us who have heard the Bible stories and seem to live a pretty good life, have we given up on our dreams? Are we pushing away out of bitterness or safety, the God who wants to bless us with things beyond our wildest dreams? Will we believe him when he moves and speaks into our lives? God wants to RESTORE THE JOY once absent in our hearts. He wants us to look spiritually beyond the here and now and into the future. He wants us to dream and believe with him about the spiritual success of the Kingdom of God! Will you reinvigorate your joy with me today at what God is about to do?

Lord, teach me to remain humble and formable clay in your hands. May I see the challenges and heartache in life as preparing me for something greater (either here on earth or in your heavenly kingdom)! And may I wait in eager expectation for your word to me. You want to bless me. And these blessings require COMPLETE SURRENDER to you!