The priest, Zechariah, and his wife, Elizabeth, had been unable to have children and were ‘getting on in age’. And then, Zechariah has an encounter with an angel in the sanctuary and he’s told Elizabeth would have a baby. He doesn’t believe it and is made mute until the baby, who will become John the Baptist, is born. Now that his mouth is opened, Zechariah cannot help but sing a song of thanksgiving and praise. He celebrates all that God has done and looks forward with anticipation to what God will do, all the while acknowledging the part his son, John, will have in the story.
If you were to write a song like this, what actions of God would you celebrate? What hopes for what God is yet to do would you include? How is God working through you or through someone in your life even now, bringing a better, more hope-filled future?
In prayer, lift each of these celebrations, hopes, and dreams to God, finding joy in what God has done and is doing, and assurance in what God will do.
