Christmas' Other Couple Teaches Us It's Never Too Late


Most of us definitely picture the couple when we think of Christmas. They've gotten old and could never have children. Oh, you weren't thinking of an elderly couple? Well, they're there. Christmas' other couple, we might call them. Sure everyone knows about Joseph and Mary, but they're not the only couple in the Christmas story. There's an elderly couple as well who went by the names Zechariah and Elizabeth.

“Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.” Luke 1:6-7 NIV

Why'd you have to throw that "very" in? Just in case someone reads the story and thinks, "they must have been in their 40s," we get "very old." How old? Doesn't say, but we know too old for kids. There are 2 babies in the story of Christmas, and both are significant. One is the Messiah, and he would be born to a virgin. The other a prophet who would prepare the way. He would be born to a woman who had tried for years to have a baby, but now it was too late.

It's never too late for God.

Old man Zechariah is on duty in the temple one day when an angel shows up and tells him he's going to have a son. 

“Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”” Luke 1:18 NIV

He didn't say his wife was an old woman. He'd been married long enough to know better than that. Still, it had to be pointed out that the room they had planned as a nursery was turned into an office a long time ago. You can read the whole story in Luke 1. I just want you to catch the truth today that it's never too late for God. Elizabeth would conceive, and the unborn baby within her would be the first to recognize that Jesus was no ordinary baby. Elizabeth told Mary the child within her leaped when Mary entered the room. John the Baptist was on the job before he was even born.

One day a woman who should have long since been a grandmother had to set up a baby nursery. It wasn't too late. It was right on time. The angel told Zechariah, "God has heard your prayers." He wasn't praying anymore though. He had given up years ago. God never forgot those prayers though, and an old man had to go to Ikea to buy furniture that would take him hours to assemble because he couldn't read the fine print on the instructions.

God hasn't forgotten your prayers either. Learn a lesson from Christmas' other couple, and keep believing.

Following the Son,

James A Williams

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