The Path of Peace

December 18th

The Path of Peace 

 

 

When you hold a miracle in your arms anything is possible. 

We all go about our lives day by day, hour by hour, the mundane shrouding the miraculous, and we forget. We forget that life itself is one unending miracle. We forget how to find joy or peace because we forget the miraculous story that we all inhabit: The long story unfolding all around us, for us and within us. 

Zechariah had forgotten, and then he’d had nine long silent months to remember. And now, finally, as his silence breaks, this song of prophecy floods out of him, bursting the banks of his silent soul. 

From deep within his heart pours out the whole true story, the whole reality of God. The reality he’d questioned at first but which he now proclaims through all generations.

It’s not just poetry Zechariah sings, its a promise. And as Zechariah speaks these words out into time he knows it’s a promise being tangibly fulfilled all around him. He’s holding it in his arms!

This elderly father finds himself at the centre of God’s unfolding plans for the redemption of his people. All of us. 

These plans were whispered long ago through the prophets, but the promise then was always ‘He will come.’

“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.”

Malachi 3:1

As Zecharaih holds his squirming soft skinned miracle in his arms a seismic shift is taking place all around them. The message has changed forever now, no longer ‘He will come’ but…

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.’ Luke 1:68

He has come. Emmanuel. God has come to be with us.

He has come through the family line of David as He promised He would…

‘He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David’ Luke 1:69

He has come fulfilling the words of the prophets He had spoken through long before…

‘(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),’ Luke 1:70

He has come fulfilling the covenant He made with Abraham and Israel…

‘salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us

to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,

the oath he swore to our father Abraham:’

Luke 1:71-73

He has come to restore a people called to represent Him on earth…

‘to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear

in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.’ Luke 1:74-75

And Zechariah, this elderly first-time father finally sings over his newly born miracle son the story of his story, a story first told by the angel Gabriel and foretold by the prophet Malachi …

‘And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,

to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,’  Luke 1:76-77

Zechariah’s son will grow up to help the people of Israel prepare their hearts for God’s own arrival, just as we prepare our hearts now through Advent. Anticipating Him.

This is the whole message of Scripture, the whole story of the Bible: God came. As He said He would. And He still comes, day by day, hour by hour. Emmanuel.

Ours is a God who has come into history. Ours is a God who comes into our lives. To be with us.

He comes into our darkness and confusion and pain and doubt and not-sure-of-anything world. He has come. He still comes.

Because it’s who He is. 

‘because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.” Luke 1:78-79

He didn’t leave us in our doubt and confusion. He didn’t leave us in our darkness and despair.

He came, wrapping himself in human frailty, vulnerable and naked. The whole of Heaven emptying itself out and making itself small. Small enough to dwell with us. Small enough to slip on human shoes and walk beside us.

Right here. Right now.

Guiding our feet into His path of peace. 

‘And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.’ Luke 1:80