Luke 1:12

Zechariah was an elderly Jewish priest living in the time just before Jesus was born. As a priest, his most sacred duty was to burn incense inside the Jerusalem Temple — a once-in-a-lifetime honor assigned by lot. His wife Elizabeth was also old, and the two of them had never been able to have children, a source of deep grief in their culture. While Zechariah was alone inside performing the incense ritual, the angel Gabriel appeared to him. Luke describes his reaction in two stages: first a sudden, physical jolt of surprise, and then a deeper, settling fear — the kind that comes when you realize you are in the presence of something far beyond your ordinary categories. The angel will go on to announce that Elizabeth will have a son who will grow up to be John the Baptist, the one who prepares the way for Jesus.

God, I confess I've gotten comfortable with you — so comfortable I sometimes forget who you actually are. Startle me gently this week. Show up in the ordinary moments, and when you do, give me the courage to stay in the room. Amen.

Here's something we tend to overlook: Zechariah is a priest. This is his life's work. He has studied the scriptures, prayed the prayers, performed the rituals — faithfully, for decades. And then God actually shows up. Literally. And Zechariah is terrified. We tend to romanticize divine encounters — candles, whispers, a kind of holy warmth. But almost every time an angel appears in Scripture, the first thing they say is 'do not be afraid,' which tells you the first thing people actually do is panic. There's something honest and oddly comforting about that. Closeness to the holy isn't always comfortable. Sometimes the nearness of God doesn't feel like a warm blanket — it feels like standing too close to something enormous and real. If you've ever had a moment — in grief, in a sleepless 3 AM, in a church pew when you weren't expecting anything — where God felt unexpectedly present, you might know a version of this. The question isn't whether you'll feel afraid. The question is whether you'll stay in the room.