Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:23-24 When his time of service was complete, he returned home.  After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

What a home coming that must have been for Zechariah!  Had news travelled ahead of him?  Perhaps not, but I can also imagine Elizabeth hearing rumours that Zechariah had “had a bit of a turn in the temple” and could no longer speak.  Did she imagine he had had something like a stroke?  How did they communicate? Was she literate? How much was Zechariah able to share with her?  So much speculation!  But this we do know.  Elizabeth was not pregnant when Zechariah came home, only “After this …”  The next step in God’s plan is once again dependent on the free choice of people, and who can say whether this action was purely a matter of pleasure or in their particular circumstances was in some measure an act of obedience? 

We are not told whether Elizabeth immediately believed what Gabriel had announced or only when her body gave her unmistakeable signs.  Nor are we told why she remained in seclusion for five months.  I speculate (but it is pure speculation) that it was both to enable her to be physically more careful of herself and because by that stage no one could any longer question the nature of her condition, which surely they would have earlier.  However, I find it a beautiful detail of God’s personal care that the timing of this most momentous of plans includes this pause.  Elizabeth retreats into seclusion for five months.  And it is only a month after she has emerged, until is ready to receive visitors again so to speak, that Gabriel is sent to Mary and Mary to Elizabeth.  We can readily become impatient waiting for the unfolding of God’s plans for ourselves and all the situations that we pray for.  So it is perhaps comforting to consider that, sometimes at least, there are other aspects of his plan that he is allowing to fall into place first.