We don’t yet to see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, through a mist.
It won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We will see it all then, see it as clearly as God sees us knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for now, until that completeness, we have these things to do to lead us towards that consummation:
trust steadily in God
hope unswervingly
love extravagantly
And the best of these is love.
1 Cor. 13:12-13 The Message
Gabriel stood before Zachariah bringing a promise from God.
The promise that he and his wife in their old age would bear a son.
Zachariah could not believe it…rather than trusting that God’s promise would come true at an unknown future date…he wanted to sign…a tangible proof that what God said was true. Stricken to silence because of unbelief, Zachariah spent the next year learning to wait and be still in silence…listening…not talking.
Be still and know that I AM God!
Ps. 46:10
As the faculty of speech is lost; hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting become heightened. Being so accustomed to constant noise…including my own talking to myself…out loud…silence can feel lonely…depressive…frightening.
What did Zachariah learn in his inability to have a voice?
Did he panic? I would.
Did he become depressed? I would.
Did he over indulge in something else? I would.
Fortunately for Zachariah, he didn’t have other distractions that we have today and as a priest and follower of God he would’ve memorized probably all of the written scripture at that point in time. I surmise that he spent much of his time in meditation of the words of God.
Teach me to long for the quiet moments…to reach for you rather than my phone…food…drink…any other pleasure or distraction.
When you say to me, “seek my face” my heart says to you, your face, my Lord, I will seek!
Ps. 27:9
Let me embrace the quiet… The silence… The undistracted moments of your presence.b let’s my ears be in tune to you… as a violin tunes to another…perfect harmony.
Let my soul hear your heartbeat as I learn to lay my troubled head on your chest. My heart to beat in perfect sync with yours. And as my words of doubt, protest and complaint fall silent…may your words of peace, promise, truth in love fill every empty recess of my heart.