When Herod was king of Judea, there was a Jewish priest named Zechariah. He was a member of the priestly order of Abijah, and his wife, Elizabeth, was also from the priestly line of Aaron. Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations – Luke 1: 5-6 NLT
One day something strange happened, I was in the kitchen preparing supper, expecting Zachariah home at any moment from the temple where he was on duty.
“Auntie Elizabeth, come quickly Uncle is back and he’s behaving funny!” shouted Alitza*, my niece from the entrance.
“Behaving funny, how?” I asked as I cleaned my hands, quickly passing her in search of my husband and not waiting for her to reply. He was at the entrance of the main room, “Oh, there—”
He pulled me into the room, quickly closing the door behind me, denying Alitza access.
“Zach are you all right?” He nodded and shook his head at the same time – Yes! No! “Talk to me, why aren’t you talking?”
He looked around searching for something, messing up his table full of parchments.
“What are you looking for? Talk to me!”
Pointing to his mouth, he shook his head. He tried talking but no sound came out. Then he started gesticulating as he picked and dropped various items as he tried to explain.
“Burning incense…Big man in white…Huge wings…face shining – Angel?” He nodded his head emphatically in confirmation and continued. He ran to the corner of the room and cowered, changing position almost at once, shaking his head and waving his hand which I think meant no.
“Do not fear? Said the Angel?” another confirmation. He points upwards, “Roof?” He looked at me disappointed and moved to the window and pointed towards the sky, watching me in expectation, “Heaven…God!”. He pulled his ears and placed his hands together which I assumed signalled prayer. “Oh, God has heard our prayers.” He smiled and pointed at me, “Me?”
What do I have to do with all this, I thought to myself as I watched him. He came close and touched my belly, jumped back, cradled his arm and rocked side to side.
“Me? Baby? Baby boy?” confirmed, confirmed.
He was so excited, he hugged me and danced me around the room as if music was being played. I was confused, I stopped him, “But why can’t you speak?”
He looked sheepishly at the floor. “Aha, you started asking questions, didn’t you? And this is your punishment?” This time very slowly…confirmed…confirmed. “Zaaach!”
Moving quickly across the room again, he found his writing materials and wrote an unusual word. He cradled his arm again and pointed to the word.
“Angel…said…baby’s name…is John. What?”
(To be continued.)
*Alitza means Joy
Stay blessed,
LaraLex
Hills and Valleys 