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 what we would refer to as 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.  This was not to be a virgin birth and 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, in their particular circumstances, to what extent this was an act of pleasure or an act of obedience? 

We are not told whether Elizabeth immediately believed what Gabriel had announced or only did so when her post-menopausal body gave her unmistakeable signs of the impossible taking place, that she was indeed carrying a child.  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.  Speculation aside, 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 not until a month after she has emerged, until she is ready to receive visitors again so to speak, that Gabriel is sent to Mary and Mary to Elizabeth.  Being able to view the two events side by side we can appreciate their mutual timing. In our own lives, of course, we can easily become impatient waiting for the unfolding of God’s plans for ourselves and all the situations that we pray for.  We don’t understand the delay, and it may remain a mystery.  But occasionally we do see in retrospect how other aspects of His plan have needed to fall into place first, and those times are worth remembering.