Kati Beasley takes us into the third Sunday of Advent, still in the Light of Isaiah 9:2 and, this week, the Everlasting Father in Isaiah 9:6 and Luke 1:67-80. In Zechariah’s prayer and praise, and the blessing he gives to his newborn son John the Baptizer, Kati sees a beautiful picture of God as Father with His people. Zechariah has spent the nine months of his wife’s pregnancy without speech (and possibly without hearing), and in that protracted silence, capacities grew within him that would create the kind of love, blessing, and parenting out of which John would grow strong in spirit, to become the prophet of the Most High.

It is worth spending time in the psalm Zechariah uttered when his speech was restored. As phrase adds upon phrase, there’s a growing weight and depth and brilliance to Zechariah’s prophecy of the mercy, grace, compassion and caring heart of God for His children who are in such need of rescue and restoration. Especially now, in the circumstances of our own time, it is good to root ourselves in that Larger Story, to sit in “the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us” and let God “guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Teaching Pastor: Kati Beasley, Pastor of Formational Life | Advent 2020 | www.thedoor.org