I will send you Elijah
When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No. He will be called John.” But they answered her, “There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” So they made signs, asking his father what he wished the baby to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,” and all were amazed.
Immediately Zechariah’s mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”
– From Luke 1
Joseph came for Mary a few days earlier, and they returned together to Nazareth. Now the time was accomplished for Elizabeth to bear her son. Her midwife told Zechariah how to help, and he brought hot water, he warmed cloths, he prayed and worried and listened to the unheard-of noises from the next room. The baby squalled and Zechariah heard. He began to cry. The midwife beckoned him, and he went in to Elizabeth.
“Here is our son,” she said to her husband still mute. “Here is our child from God.” He touched the baby’s cheek with his ancient fingertip. Zechariah’s breath came quickly, and at last he began, with his wife and son, to rest. In the darkness alone, now, they slept.
In the morning the neighbors came. The women oohed over the new baby, and the men smoked cigars, perhaps, with Zechariah, who remained still, who spoke not a word but whose proud smile spoke volumes. They brought food, and all of them laughed together, amazed that God had given these old people a brand new baby.
Then it was eight days later, there in the hill country only a few miles from Jerusalem, as the flowers bloomed and olive branches waved in the summer breeze. Now it was time for the baby’s first surgery, and for his christening. But the name seemed wrong, at least to everyone except Elizabeth and her husband.
Then it was, at last, when Zechariah’s clear obedience to the words of Gabriel broke through the long silence. As he wrote the words, his mouth also began to move, the words rise up in his throat, the sound of joy bearing that new name, “His name shall be called John!”
Yes, John, just as the angel had said, the same John about whom his cousin Jesus would say, “Elijah has already come,” Malachi’s prophesy accomplished. This tiny baby boy will prepare the world for Jesus, for “the day of the Lord, the great and terrible day, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 3:24).
“What, then, will this child be?” the neighbors ask, eyes wide. God bides his time, but not for long. The morning is about to dawn, even in the middle of the night. Songs of joy echo in the hill country.
In this time, Father, time of quiet and stillness too, let me listen to your birds sing, as they always do in their joy and satisfaction. As your times are accomplished and your babies born, life is brought to fruit, and we’re made whole.
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