MAKING A LIST, CHECKING IT TWICE
“Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.” - Luke 1:13
Santa is not the only one making a list and checking it twice as Christmas approaches. I have a
Christmas card list, and an elaborate spreadsheet of gifts to purchase, ship, or wrap. Each of my kids has extensive wish lists of items, most of which they do not need. There are dozens of Legos sets, random tween tech gear, and even an electronic cow that can be fed with a baby bottle. They are doing a lot of earnest asking for the things they believe they need in order to be happy.
Perhaps our “wish list” of requests to God takes on a different format: take away this illness, get me this job, change this person who irritates me. We ask, pray, and hope for the things that we believe will bring us joy. Sometimes we pray and pray for things that never come true, and then we begin to give up hope. Elizabeth and Zechariah had prayed and hoped for a child for years, and by all accounts their opportunities to be parents had passed. In today’s Gospel, when the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah, he says “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.”. Instead of responding with joy and gratitude, Zechariah questions how God could possibly answer his prayers at this time. Why now, after all these years?
Today’s Gospel pairs two announcements from the angel Gabriel: the pregnancy of Elizabeth and that of Mary. Two impossible scenarios. Two births foretold. Two different reactions to the news. I want to be like Mary, who responds to God with a joyful “Yes, your will be done!” But more often than not, I respond like Zechariah with doubt, questioning, and hopelessness. How long have I prayed to forgive? God could not possibly be calling me to forgive now. I asked for a clear sign of a direction to take in a discernment, but what I sense now from God is not what I expected to hear. We make a list, say the prayers, and then sometimes find ourselves struggling to receive the blessing that God has gifted us.
But there is hope for those of us who doubt and fear! God does not withhold his blessings from Zechariah. The gift of new life is still freely given, despite the less than enthusiastic response to the announcement. Zechariah needed time. So in addition to the gift of parenthood, God gifted him with the space to absorb this news. In Zechariah’s story, we receive the consolation that God will nurture and tenderly care for His precious gifts to us.
God, give me the grace to want what you want for me, the openness to be more open to your will, and the willingness to be as patient with myself as you are with me. These gifts of hope do not fit in an Amazon cart. I am probably also going to buy some Legos, but not the bottle-drinking electronic cow.
Jen Coito