THE GOD OF DREAMS by Terry Benson

“Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John.”   Luke 1:13 (NLT)

“It’s no use, I’m too old now. My dreams are dead, my body hurts in places I didn’t know I even had. I’ll just put in my time and try to be a good pastor for the remainder of my years. Liz and I tried, but we’re just too old now.”

I don’t know if Zechariah ever had thoughts like the above, but I’m sure many of us recently “seniorized” baby-boomers have. Not that we want more kids! But as we age it’s easy to feel like life has passed us by, that what we once hoped for should remain in the scrapbooks of our minds, or that we just need to let go and give in to the natural order of things. Dreams are best left to the young and the therapist’s couch.

Zechariah and his wife had a dream once. Like most Jewish couples they longed for a baby. But their dream died as they grew older. There were no fertility clinics in the first century to aid childless couples. So they resigned themselves to living out the rest of their days as good Israelites. Until the day the angel came. Funny how God doesn’t see the wrinkles, the dimming eyes, or the barren womb. With God, possibilities always exist, and He loves to use dreams as the blueprints for new realities.

So the angel came to tell Zechariah that he wasn’t too old and that God remembered the prayers that Zechariah had long forgotten. He and Elizabeth were expecting! Not just a son to carry on the family name, this miracle baby would be a special gift – a child whose name would define his very existence and purpose. “John”, the angel said his name would be. It means “God is merciful”.

You don’t have to be an aging baby-boomer to experience broken dreams and disappointments. Life in this dark world has a way of crushing the reveries of even the youngest.  But God knows what your hopes once were, and God sees what is now obscured to your vision. So don’t be surprised if one day in the middle of your devotions an angel visits you and says, “Don’t be afraid, God has heard your prayers….”