In the silence.

For 9 months he could not speak.

Struck dumb.

Silent.

All because he expressed his disbelief at what the angel announced.

‘You and your wife will have a baby’.

Really?…come on….he was old….very old. And if he and his wife hadn’t had a child so far, why should he believe that they would have one now. It wasn’t for want of trying…but it just hadn’t happened.

Whatever you make of the 9 months of enforced silence…

However that sits with you….struck silent for expressing doubt…

…dwell with me for a few moments in Zechariah’s silence.

For 9 months he could not speak…

…all he could do was listen.

Listen.

Listen to others…

..and listen to God.

Hearing words; considering words; turning words over in his mind.

Replaying conversations.

Maybe reading Scripture.

Rehearsing God’s promises.

Lingering on each word…each verse.

Examining his heart.

Welcoming God’s small still voice in his innermost being.

I imagine him pondering the angel’s words.

Deeply pondering.

Like, over and over again pondering.

Replaying them in his mind.

He saw the immediate fulfilment with his wife falling pregnant.

For years they had tried. But now…just like the angel said, Elizabeth was pregnant.

Imagine Zechariah gazing at her growing bump…imagining the child growing within.

The child would ‘make ready a people prepared for the Lord’ said the angel.

Imagine Zechariah sitting with those words and picturing them in relation to his child.

I wonder if his trust in God deepened – her growing bump a visible reminder of God’s promise.

And when she did give birth, filled with Spirit, Zechariah sung a song. You can read it in Luke 1:68-79.

That song was written over the previous 9 months. It was the overflow of all that God had taught him…had been doing in him.

In the silence.

As Zechariah listened.

And fed on God and His promises.

Now, his tongue released, he could not hold back.

And he burst forth in song.

Folks, may we never know an enforced silence like Zechariah, but instead may we choose silence. May we choose to embrace silence. To take time away from the noise and clamour of life. To switch off, to unplug, to turn down…

…and to listen.

To whatever God might have for us.