As we celebrate Advent together, we want to help you approach this season with purpose and intentionality. This post is part of a four week devotional series designed to guide you toward Christmas day. Spend some time reading this with your family or some close friends, then take some time to answer the discussion questions together.

Read: Luke 1:57-80

Luke started his gospel by talking about Zechariah and Elizabeth and God’s promise to give them a son named John. Because Zechariah hadn’t believed this news, he was told that he would “be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place”. (Luke 1:20)

When that day came, Zechariah – now trusting God – wrote that his son’s name was to be John. At that very moment, he regained his speech. And look at how he chooses to use the gift of speech: “he spoke, blessing God.” And, like Mary, he sings a hymn to God (sometimes called the “Benedictus”, from “Praise Be”).

In his praise to God, Zechariah acknowledges that he is a part of a big story God has been writing for a very long time. He knows that the arrival of Jesus means the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham made two thousand years earlier. It also means the fulfillment of his promises to David one thousand years earlier. And the fact that he and Elizabeth’s son, given to them in their old age, “will be called the prophet of the Most High” means they have the privilege of playing an important part in the big story God has been telling.  

Today, we are part of this same story. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, we’re waiting for the Messiah. Only now we wait for his second arrival where he will once and for all remove every trace of sin’s effects in our world. With opened mouths, may we too celebrate God’ faithfulness to fulfill his promises as we wait.

Discuss With Others

Do you think Zechariah and Elizabeth ever felt unimportant? How do you think the birth of John made them feel?

How does it make you feel to know that you get to play a part in the story God has been writing since the creation of our world?