The angel Gabriel is sent to Zechariah to bring him the good news that his wife, Elizabeth, who has been barren, will soon give birth to a son, and a special son at that; someone whose calling it would be to prepare for the LORD a people fit for him. However, this good news was too much for Zechariah to hear, and he could not bring himself to believe the words that Gabriel spoke to him.
Perhaps there is something of Zechariah in all of us. We sometimes find it hard to believe good news, perhaps because we are so used to hearing bad news. In particular, we can sometimes find it hard to believe the Good News that comes to us from God; or we may believe the Good News from God in a general way, but not as Good News addressed us personally.
The dimension of God’s Good News that we celebrate at this time of the year is that God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has become God-with-us, Emmanuel, in and through Mary’s son, Jesus. This is God’s Good News addressed to us as a people and addressed to us as individuals. God is with us in Christ, and Christ is beside us, behind us, before us, above us, below us. This is the Good News we are asked to believe and, indeed, rejoice in during these days.+
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