God Is Good
Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent
My dear encountered couples:
Into her old age Elizabeth was without children, she was unable to have any. Such a condition was very embarrassing for a woman. For a woman’s purpose and usefulness in those days was considered, especially by the men, to be the bearing of children and taking care of home and husband. Now God was going to change her condition, he was taking away what Elizabeth refers to as her “reproach,” her disgrace and embarrassment. Maybe some people considered her less than a complete woman, maybe the uncharitable ones made fun of her, not only behind her back but to her face. This was now at an end. Though it might seem God was rather slow about it, he was now granting the answer to her lifelong prayer. “In these days,” said Elizabeth, “the Lord is acting on my behalf; he has seen fit to remove my reproach among men.” Can you see the tears in her eyes? I think I see one in yours.
Many people have conditions, or illnesses, or handicaps, or something they would rather be without. Maybe some of us truly got shorted when God handed out his gifts. That, like Elizabeth, we didn’t get what we consider our fair share. But from hearing this story about Zechariah and Elizabeth it might help us realize that God has a reason for our being shorted, or at least that he will put a reason into it. And someday we will understand it.
Someday God will bring tears to our eyes when he gives us what we lack, when he makes us complete. It might not be in this life as it was with Elizabeth, but we can be assured it will be in the next, if we just hang in there and trust. Elizabeth bore with her sterility into her old age, she trusted that God was in control. Because of that she not only became the mother of a great saint, John the Baptist, she became a saint herself. Happiness and sainthood are in the future of all who trust and wait. Expect God to bring the best out of everything for you.
