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The story of Zechariah is our story as well. Zechariah received a blessing. We all have been blessed at one point or another in the past. After Zechariah received the blessing, his response was doubt. His response was fear. His response was disbelief. Isn’t that what we often do after we are blessed by God? We cannot believe that God can be so good to us. We cannot believe it and we become afraid. We ask questions like, “What will God ask from me later on?” And then what follows is the third phase. We go into dryness. Zechariah became deaf and mute.
He could not talk. He could not understand. He could not hear. He went into a period of dryness. He was left by himself. He was sort of isolated by God from others. That is why to speak with him, they had to use signs.
The story of Zechariah did not end with dryness. It ended with his conviction that God had truly blessed him. And even if it was counter-cultural, even if it was contrary to the custom, he said, “No, his name is John because God told me so.” That is called conversion. The story of Zechariah is our story too. First we are blessed, then we refuse, then we go into dryness, and finally, we understand. And having understood, we are converted. And having been converted, we enter into a new phase in our life which is peace.
Where are we right now? If we know that we are being blessed by God, let us not enter into doubt. Let us not disbelieve but trust. If we know that we are in a period of dryness right now because we have not believed God or we have doubted His love for us, let us be converted and say “Lord, I am sorry.” Believe me, when we enter into that realm of conversion, we will find the peace that we have been longing for.
We will be able to speak again of the glories of God.
