The world at the time of Jesus’ birth was experiencing one of those periods of spiritual awareness and expectation. In Israel, the feeling that the coming of the Messiah, awaited for so many years, enveloped many with great expectation.
Then God spoke to several people. How often today do you pray that God will speak to you? Tell you what to do? Tell you where to go? Really, would you listen if He did tell you? Not everyone was so sure. Mary was puzzled, but she said something like, “Whatever you say. I’m here.”
Zechariah, not unlike Abraham and Sarah, laughed at the notion. He said something, probably in a Bill Cosby tone of voice, “Oh, yeah. Right.” Oops. It really was God speaking. So God made it so he couldn’t speak until all was fulfilled. Imagine, a preacher who can’t talk. OK, so he wasn’t a preacher, but he was a priest and evidently known to talk.
I contemplate on these things. How would we really react if God broke through our shell and told us something? Because God seldom told people he called what they wanted to hear. Abraham wasn’t always sure he wanted to go where he did. Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and many others we read about were not told what they wanted to hear. But they all answered the call.
God may or may not expressly tell you anything this Advent. But if you are not waiting in eager expectation for Jesus to come to you, you will miss the call. And that would be bad.
By the way, this is sort of a landmark post–it’s my 300th on this site.
Faith Venture 
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