Getting Ready for the Surprise

Reading: Luke 1:5–25

Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.

Luke 1:13

Advent reminds us that God’s greatest works often begin in places that look barren, quiet, or forgotten. Luke opens his Gospel with an elderly priest and his wife—faithful, righteous, and yet living with the ache of unanswered prayer. Into this disappointment, the angel’s words break like dawn: “Your prayer has been heard.” Before Jesus is born, before the manger, before the angels fill the sky, God begins His redemption story with a surprise. As the psalmist sings, “He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children” (Psalm 113:9). Hope enters the narrative not through the powerful, but through a couple who had long stopped expecting anything new.

There is mystery in how God works, and none of it follows our timelines. While Zechariah is offering incense in silence, God is already weaving the impossible. Advent teaches us to pay attention to the quiet places—our longings, our waiting, our weary prayers that feel too old to rise. God chooses these hidden places as the soil for new beginnings. As E. M. Bounds writes, “The possibilities of prayer are found in its allying itself with the purposes of God, for God’s purposes and man’s praying are the combination of all potent and omnipotent forces.” And as Howard Thurman reminds us, we discover the Eternal not by escaping our experiences but by entering them deeply; it is often in the ordinary moments, the ones we have nearly given up on, that we suddenly find ourselves surprised by God’s presence.

The child promised to Zechariah would prepare a people for the Lord—yet the way this promise begins is deeply personal: God remembers a couple, speaks their names, and meets them in their private sorrow. Advent hope often starts exactly there—in the impossible, in the forgotten, in the prayers we no longer speak aloud. As we continue this journey of getting ready, we are invited to hold our lives open to God’s unexpected grace. His redemption story still begins with surprises.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, 

As we walk this Advent path, help us stay open to Your surprises. Meet us in the places that feel barren, weary, or forgotten. Remind us that our prayers are heard and that You often begin Your work where we least expect it. Prepare our hearts to welcome Your unexpected grace.

Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.