Most people never get to meet the Queen or the President, or even their teenage idol. Most athletes never make it to the World Cup Final, or the Super Bowl, or even the Olympics. Should they be fortunate to be given that opportunity, they savour it, for they know it may well be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Zachariah had one of those experiences when he was picked to burn incense in the temple in Jerusalem. There were about eight thousand priests in Israel at the time and one was chosen, each time for this most sacred task, by casting lots. When old Zachariah entered the temple he must have been filled with exhilaration mixed with trepidation, for he would be as close to the Holy of Holies as any man, apart from the High Priest, was ever allowed to go. And then it happened! The angel Gabriel met him beside the altar.
“But the angel said, Don’t be afraid Zachariah! For God has heard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son! And you are to name him John….He will precede the coming of the Lord, preparing the people for his arrival”.
Luke 1: 13, 17b.
Zachariah could perhaps have been forgiven for asking the questions he did, given the ages of his wife and himself, but this was taken as unbelief and he was struck dumb until his son was born as God had promised.
Most people have never, and probably never will, see an angel whilst we are on this earth – or, at least, won’t recognise them as such! Most will never receive a message from God in the way Zachariah did. But all God’s people have been called by him to a life of service and relationship with him. For some it will have been dramatic and unforgettable, for others less so – maybe a gradual realisation. But for all of us it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, never to be forgotten, always to be cherished.
Can we become heroes and follow that dream, in faithfulness, along that – as yet – unknown path? We have but one lifetime in which to cherish that experience.
