HOME
Daily Devotions for the Advent and Christmas Seasons
Saturday, December 19
Luke 1:1-25
by Gilbert Henry Lee
Zechariah got not one but two physical manifestations of God’s power: his postmenopausal wife is expecting, and he exits the temple mute. It doesn’t say if he was ecstatic after his holy encounter. That God chose to take his voice away at such a great time for “speechifying” indicates either divine strategy or some sort of twisted sense of humor on God’s part.
How often have we awaited a sign of God’s power? A rainbow, a sunset, a miracle cure, a lottery win? In Zechariah’s time and the present, someone will give a logical or scientific explanation for any “coincidence.”
Before he went to Pharaoh, Moses asked for a sign that God was God. Paraphrased, God said, “In the Promised Land, looking back, you’ll know.” Only God knew that would be in 40 years. Twisted humor again?
Yet I marvel at the twists my own life has taken. I was in Cameron House at a time of intense community involvement. Being draft age in the 70s pushed me to study politics and history. In Nicaragua and at the El Salvador border, I got a glimpse of life in the underdeveloped world. And then . . .
I met Eunice, a PK (“Preacher’s Kid”) from the underdeveloped world who worked against Marcos’s reelection deception and who defies corporate greed. Maybe someone could come up with a logical or scientific explanation for this convergence or for why our shared efforts in moving encyclopedias and sewing machines to a Filipino school should have evolved into the Pipit Fund community development projects. Me, I’m in awe sometimes.
Truth be told, I also feel overwhelmed for weeks after we return from the Philippines. It can seem as if we’re just spitting into a typhoon. So much needs to be done there. But I also feel after 50+ years that I am where I’m supposed to be.
Praise God!
Prayer
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in your every move you make yourselves known in our world. (Trinity believers, anyone?) And at Advent we celebrate a physical manifestation of great joy, to say the least. As we try to step away from ingrained habits during this holy season, may we be gifted with contemplation, retrospection, and insight. Amen.