What I’m Learning from Z and E

Before I go any further, I want to acknowledge that a counseling session this week, and a dear friend in my study group for school, shed some new light on an old and beautiful Bible story I’ve heard many times. Thank you, Ladies, for bringing attention to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story as told by the Apostles, Luke and Matthew.

I decided to practice Advent this year, not just receive devotional emails each day, but light the candles and really dig into the significance of each week’s theme. Hope was the theme word for the first week. For the love, I had none when I welcomed the start of Advent last Sunday. I mean none. The very word made me cringe.

You see, I’ve been living a literal Advent season for well over six years now. The darkness of a certain situation in my life; the waiting; the waiting; the waiting. Trying my hardest to hope that the light (of a miracle) will break through, and the season of waiting will be over. And for whatever reason, Sunday, November 30, 2025, had me in a tizzy. The reality of the dark weight on my heart felt the heaviest it’s felt in a long time.

When I opened the first devotional email that welcomed Advent and the word hope, my heart sank. I’m just not ready for this, Lord. Maybe it’s a mistake for me to participate in Advent this year? The contemplative question at the end of the devotional asked the reader, “When waiting unfolds into wonder, what do you hope to find there? Really? That’s the question. I’m not even going to answer that out loud or in my journal. You know it, Lord. Please don’t make me say it again.

I hope you will receive this post as a confession of my soul. I’m bringing you all the ick I’m feeling right now. But even if one person can find a takeaway in this raw post, it will be worth it.

As the week went on, I noticed my heart soften a tiny bit. I went to counseling and shared my distaste for the word hope. It was then that my counselor brought up the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

“They were both righteous in the sight of God, following all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.  But they did not have a child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both very old.” Luke 1:6-7

She explained that Z and E (let’s just simplify their names for the sake of TLDR) had waited years and years for a child. They had no idea what God was up to during that time. I’m sure as they carried this wound of Elizabeth being barren and both of them being well along in years, they had lost hope of their miracle ever happening. But God was up to something. His perfect timing was going to carry out great plans for them and for generations to come. Think about it, Mary had to be at an age to bear children, so that she and Elizabeth’s pregnancies would coincide. And God, in His magnificent ways, planned that Elizabeth’s son would be the one to announce Mary’s son as the Messiah, Jesus, and baptize Him. These births, and their timing, are not only a fulfillment of prophesy from long ago, but a most precious gift of new life for us living in this day.

My counselor and I discussed this in depth, then we named the ways that my husband and I have remained faithful followers of Jesus through our woundedness of estrangement from our oldest child. Has it been easy?No. Have we wanted to crawl in a deep, dark hole, and not come out? Yes. But as the years go by, and we accept the journey we are on a little more, we are able to stand firm in our faith, and courageously face each hard day, trying our best to believe God is up to something in our family’s future restoration.

I walked out of my session much more hopeful than I had went in.

 And then things got dicey. Well, not dicey, but maybe confusing…

The next day, I was on a Zoom call with my study group from school, which included my dear friend, Liz. We got to talking about Z and E, and she said something I won’t soon forget. She asked me if I’ve ever thought about what things were like for them as parents after they received their miracle child, John?

 “For he (John) is the one about whom Isaiah the prophet had spoken: “The voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight.’” Now John wore clothing made from camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey.” Matthew 3:3-4

Okay, so it might be just me, but “a voice shouting in the wilderness?” He wore clothes made from camel’s hair? And ate locusts and wild honey? I am not minimizing John the Baptist’s calling and purpose on this earth, but I do wonder if he was a challenging child to raise? I can’t think of many children who end up as young adults eating locusts and honey and living in the wilderness. Not literally anyway.

There is not much more mentioned about Z and E in the scriptures, so this is where I like to use my God-given imagination to fill in some of the holes. If I put myself in their shoes, I might wonder if there was something I missed God saying about what my child would be like when grown up? Or maybe wonder if this child is really who God meant to give me? I might question if I failed somehow as a mom?

The answers to those questions are no, no, and no. John the Baptist was a miracle given to Z and E. He had a significant purpose in a magnificent story. Was he a little strange? I would venture to guess so. Could he have been a handful when he was younger? Quite possibly. Both things are true. One doesn’t cancel out the other. The hard and the easy. The frustrating and delightful. The joy and the sorrow. They all share the same space at the same time.

I just lit the candle for this second week of Advent. I’m feeling a lot better than I did last week at this time. Peace is the theme word this week. As I think about Zecheriah, Elizabeth and John, I’m reminded that my life, my daughter, and our family are held by the God who loves us so deeply, who has future plans for us, and who has perfect timing for all things under Heaven. The joys live in the midst of the sorrows, and somehow I will continue to learn how to hold them both.

Welcome to the second week of Advent!

With love and prayers,

Krista