When the Lord Struck My Husband: An Advent Testimony
Hi, it’s Shannon again, Cap’s wife. Before you get too
excited, the title does not refer to God striking Cap. This Christmas we both
tried our hand at a little creative writing, though we took the challenge
different ways. Last week, Cap wrote
in dramatic monologue about Abraham’s experience with one of the first
Christmas prophecies; I, on the other hand, wrote Elizabeth’s story like I
imagined she would share it if she were giving her testimony in front of a
modern church. For me, it provided a fresh breath of air into a story that can
become so familiar. Hope you enjoy, and Merry Christmas!
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My husband and I both come from the high priestly line of Aaron, and we had lived our entire lives, before and after marriage, fearing the LORD and keeping His commandments.
There were also personal circumstances that tempted us to
grief. We had no children. Though we prayed and prayed, the LORD seemed as
silent and distant to our personal requests as He was to our nation’s troubles.
Eventually I passed child-bearing age, and we were left clinging to the LORD
despite our disappointments.
But we soon found that God had not been distant from us,
after all, and He was about to break His silence.
One day, after his routine duty in the temple, Zechariah
came home extremely excited—and also completely unable to speak. He tried to
tell me what happened, but I couldn’t understand his signing. I found from the
other temple priests that he had been burning incense before the LORD and had
taken longer than expected. To me, this was an added trial in the midst of
other cares, and we had to learn new ways to communicate.
A few weeks later I started feeling ill, and I thought that
my health was starting to fail just as Zechariah’s speech had. However, I had
helped other women in pregnancy and childbirth all my life, and my symptoms
were strangely like being pregnant. When I made this comment to Zechariah, he
nodded knowingly. The weeks went on and it became more obvious: somehow, despite
being past menopause, I was miraculously pregnant!
As we learned to communicate better throughout the coming
months, I learned that my husband had had some kind of vision foretelling my
pregnancy when he was in the temple that day. He gave me to understand that God
had a special purpose for our baby and that we were to name him John. After
hearing this, I felt like our father Abraham’s wife Sarah: once barren, now
blessed with a son of promise from the LORD!
I can tell you that I understand why God usually has a
cut-off age for pregnancy: carrying a child at my age was difficult. But every
little kick I felt from John was another answer to prayer, another reminder
that God was not deaf to our struggles and that He was working. I just didn’t
know exactly how yet.
When I was about six months pregnant, my cousin Mary, who
had just gotten engaged, came to visit me. As soon as I saw her, John didn’t
just kick inside me—he leapt. At the
same time I felt the powerful presence of the LORD telling me, beyond a doubt,
that the prophesied Messiah was in her womb. It was just as Isaiah had
foretold: that a virgin would give birth. Here I had been waiting for any word
at all from the LORD, and it was given to me not only to see my personal desires
answered but also to see the long-awaited prophecies fulfilled! The mother of
my Messiah was sitting in my house!
Three months later, my John was born. It was so exciting to
see my neighbors and relatives reacting to the obvious miracle God had worked
in our lives. The news of the LORD’s blessing on us was an encouragement to our
faithful friends who had also been hoping for Him to speak once more to Israel.
When the time came for John to be circumcised and officially
named, those same friends and neighbors were confused when I told them his name
was John. No one in our ancestry had that name. They asked Zechariah if my wish
was accurate, and Zechariah wrote to them, “His name is John.” Immediately my
husband’s silence broke, and he began weeping for joy and loudly praising the
LORD.
We see now that, like Zechariah’s silence, the Lord’s
silence for all those years was a purposeful part of His plan to surprise and
amaze us anew with his grace. We see now that the bitterness of my physical
barrenness, and of Israel’s spiritual barrenness, can be healed in an instant
by the LORD’s power.
Part of my husband’s prayer when he began to speak is now my
eternal song: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and
redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation . . . to show the
mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. . . . to give
light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”
John’s name means “God is gracious.” Indeed, He is!
photo credit: Macorig
Paolo via photopin cc