The Nativity: A Special Child

Chapter 2

Meanwhile, in the hill country of Judea few miles south of Jerusalem, in a town of significant history, lives an old couple. Everybody knows them to be pious Jews. The man is Zacharias, and the woman is Elizabeth. Both are Levites.

They are now at home. Elizabeth is looking outside the window while Zacharias is reading a scroll comprising the prophecies of Malachi. As for Elizabeth, the gray-haired woman observes as some youngsters play in the street. She hears the harmless laughter among them. Ah, she remembers those days of innocence. Children.

And she sighs. And Zacharias hears his wife. He looks up from the scroll to behold his beloved wife looking out the window. Despite the old age, Zacharias retains a keen ear and can hear the children outdoors. He can easily guess what Elizabeth is thinking. "Oh, Elizabeth," he starts, "we are old now. Our hope of having a child is gone now."

Elizabeth turns to her husband. "I know," she responds. "Why?"

Zacharias gets up and lays the scroll neatly on the wooden table nearby. He approaches his wife. He shuts his eyes. "I do not know, beloved. Why would not God permit us to have a son?"

"Hmm. Troublesome times?"

Zacharias considers his wife's answer. He has heard plenty in the news about what's transpiring around them. "Yes, dear, these are troublesome times. Herod had people pelted to death with wood and stones, and then he murdered the Hasmonean sons of his." He embraces his wife tenderly. "I wonder, when shall the Messiah come to restore our souls to God?"

"Zacharias," states the senior Elizabeth, "we pray for that each day. We keep the commands of the Lord."

Zacharias looks out the window, joining his wife. "We do pray for Messiah to come, our new King." He hears the children. Zacharias sets his right hand over his chin, his right elbow feeling the soft wood of the window frame. He now says, "Yes, I agree; I wish we could have a child of our own."

The gray-bearded Zacharias looks upward now. "O Lord," he prays, "is it not the time, about the time for Messiah to come?"

Elizabeth now looks at the scroll of Malachi, but she isn't handling it. She reads from it: "Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me."

Zacharias pivots to the open scroll also. Then to his wife. "We must still wait for the Messiah of God."

"I know," replies his wife.

Zacharias now takes the scroll and reads where he left off: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."