“When it was time for Elizabeth’s baby to born, she gave birth to a son.”
(Luke 1:57 NLT)
This seems like a matter-of-fact verse at glance. Elizabeth was pregnant for nine months and then she gave birth. But pull back a moment and remember that Elizabeth was “very old.” Historians suggest at least sixty.
**I’m pausing to insert a quick apology to all my retirement-aged friends.
I know you are young at heart!**
Whether we believe sixty to be very old or not, we all know it’s far past the child-rearing window. I’m forty-one and if I were to turn up pregnant, I’m pretty sure my family practitioner would label it a geriatric pregnancy and send me off to the high-risk obstetrician. To put it into perspective, I’m two decades younger than Elizabeth was.
Let’s look at our scripture again: “when it was time… she gave birth.” It seems God had always intended to make Elizabeth a momma, it just hadn’t yet been time. Elizabeth didn’t just wait the usual nine months, she waited a lifetime for this very moment. And when the appointed time finally came, her joy was complete and contagious.
I wonder what you are waiting for this Christmas. Are you like Elizabeth, loving for that faint pink ‘plus’ on a home pregnancy test? Maybe you are awaiting the results of bloodwork, or the callback from a job interview. Perhaps you are praying your prodigal home, or marking time till the pandemic ends. (aren’t we all?) Whatever it is, rest in the truth that one day the waiting will come to a place of completion, as it did for Elizabeth; when it is time.
We are reminded in the long shadows of this strange advent that God’s timing is markedly different than our timing. It seems we are always in a hurry and He is never, never late.
“This vision is for a future time. It describes the end and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3 NLT)
Lord, please forgive us for our feelings of impatience. We struggle to wait well. But we read Your Word and consider Your track record and trust Your timing. We wait in steadfast hope until that hour. Amen.