The Gift of Silence

Read: Luke 1:5-20
And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place. (v. 20)

We don’t know a lot about silence. And if we do, we are often uncomfortable with those spaces in our lives. Yet in God’s economy, silence signals mysterious, internal work. Trees draw nourishment from the silent earth, and babies are wondrously woven while we don’t hear it happening. A more modern psalmist put it this way: “How silently, how silently / the wondrous gift is given! / . . . No ear may hear his coming, / but in this world of sin, / where meek hearts will receive him still / the dear Christ enters in.”

The Gospel of Luke tells the story of Zechariah, a priest who can’t believe the Angel Gabriel’s message that a son will be born in his old age; a child who will prepare the way for the Messiah. Because of his disbelief, he is sentenced to silence for nine months of waiting. When Zechariah can speak again, he is a changed man, one whose mouth is full of faith and praise.

God works in the silence of the heart. Underneath the surface, even when we don’t understand or agree with what is happening, God is knitting, nourishing, and making ready. No ear may hear his coming, but he enters the chaos of our world with both strength and tenderness, doing a work none of us can predict or understand. 

Prayer: Giver of good gifts, help me believe that in your silence you are working something amazing, and help me trust you for the things I can’t yet understand.