8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” 18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
Christmas is now a crazy and chaotic scene around the Price household with three children out of school for 3 straight weeks with nothing to do but try to find hidden Christmas presents, fight, and terrorize grandma. It is now very doubtful that Santa will be coming to the home of these naughty children. Either way, it's still a lot of fun.
But I remember Christmases past which were less chaotic and less joyful. I remember the days when my grandparents were sick and aging and there were no children to delight and take wonder in. There was a deep sadness in those years.
Yet as much as we think of Christmas as a time of promise for children with all the world before them, it is also and was first a time for promise for the elderly whose best and brightest days they were sure were behind them.
That's the first story of Christmas anyway -- the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were an aged couple without children and without the prospect of ever being terrorized by either a child or a grandchild. They were barren. And it is to them in their barrenness closing of womb and sadness of aging that the first promise of Christmas comes: "You will have joy and gladness."
Now it is of course doubtful that any aged and barren couple I know is going to suddenly get pregnant in old age and have a child like Zechariah and Elizabeth had John. As one wheelchair-bound woman quipped to a pastor friend who was preaching this story at the local nursing home, "Pregnant? Now? Try telling that to Medicaid."
So maybe a baby isn't on the way. But the promise of Christmas can still come -- even into the nursing home.
And here is the promise: joy and gladness and the knowledge that no one is too old or barren to be remembered by God.
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