The Young and the Restless

Vocabulary.com defines a soap opera as a “dramatic TV show that follows the lives of a set of interrelated characters.”

The Young and the Restless, in particular, has been a fan favorite for almost 50 years.  For the last 32 seasons, it has been the highest rated daytime drama on American television.  For many of those years, my family was tuned in as well.  When my mom was home on Christmas or summer break, after cleaning the kitchen and before starting the laundry, we’d sit down together and watch the “stories.”  Since this was before DVRs, or even VCRs, we couldn’t record, watch and follow the story line every day.  We didn’t need to, though; the story lines and their core characters were always pretty predictable: the Newmans, the Abbotts, the Fosters… and their children… and then the children that they didn’t know about… and so on. 

But long before fictional soap opera families, there were biblical families who had their share of dramas as well: betrayal, murder, adultery, trickery… and even sister wives.  Such imperfections were why Jesus’s blood couldn’t come naturally, from a human.  It had to come immaculately, born through it but not of it, from a spiritually perfect Father. 

This family and its lineage of faith began with Abraham and followed with Isaac and then Jacob.  And then multiple generations until Boaz.  And from there to Obed and then Jesse and then David the king and then Solomon.  And then many more generations until Eliud and then Eleazar and then Matthan and then Jacob and then Joseph, the betrothed of Mary.

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”

And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple. But when he came out, he could not speak to them; and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned to them and remained speechless.

So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, “Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

Luke 1:13-45 NKJV (emphasis added)

This was a story line that Jewish families had been following for centuries, a plot twist hundreds of years in the making.  Isaiah 7:14 and Isaiah 40:3 had promised the people of Israel that their Messiah and His forerunner would come.  Generation after generation had been expecting them.  And now…finally…the Word of the Lord was coming to pass.      

But no one could have guessed that the fulfillment of (what we call) the Old Testament scriptures and their prophecies would come about this way.  Neither Mary nor Elizabeth would’ve ever thought that they would be cast in their own sort of daytime drama (reference Luke 1:78-79) or that their legacy would include being main characters in the greatest story ever told. 

Mary.  Unmarried and virgin.  Young.

Elizabeth.  Married and barren.  Restless.

Pregnancy, for them both, was literally inconceivable.

Mary wouldn’t have prayed for it at all…

Elizabeth had been praying for it for so long…

But, nevertheless, they came to their points of promise at the same time.

Honestly, sometimes I feel like my point of promise is, at best, elusive. 

You too, huh?

Luke chapter 1 is filled with lessons that can be learned from Mary and Elizabeth: divine timing, community development, and deep faith.  But I think that it’s speaking to me so profoundly as I prepare for this new year because of its lesson in conception.  If you study Mary and Elizabeth, you’ll see that they were devout Jewish women.  I believe that their devotion, an abiding relationship with God, positioned them for conception, wombs open to carrying His promises.      

I was journaling a while back, and as I wrote, I started to realize that I had stopped expecting God to do anything particularly noteworthy in my life.  If I didn’t expect anything, I thought, then I wouldn’t be disappointed.  While that was how I felt, there was more to it than my obvious lack of faith.  The deeper that I went, the more honest that I got with myself, I ultimately realized that I wasn’t expecting anything because I hadn’t spent any intimate time with God.  You know… the things that make any relationship real: quiet time, uninterrupted and undistracted, and communication, speaking honestly and listening intently.  No intimacy, therefore, no expectation.  Ultimately, I couldn’t conceive anything that the womb of my heart wasn’t open to receiving. 

As you and I enter a new year and, undoubtedly, a new season, there’s something for us to learn here about expectation, about pregnancy with purpose. 

Perhaps you’re young.  Maybe you’re about to embark on a new venture, wide-eyed and giddy about your next.

Or perhaps you’re restless.  Maybe you’re about to quit because despite your best efforts, your situation hasn’t changed and your next looks like more of the same. 

Trust me, I get it.  At times, you question the worthiness of your womb. 

But what if God wasn’t just willing to meet our expectations, but to exceed them?  Look back at how the scripture describes both John and Jesus.  Look at the one word Gabriel used to describe them both: great.  I believe that that’s also the one word that God uses to describe what He’s given us to carry too (reference Jeremiah 33:3). 

I can’t help but to believe that God wants us to believe Him for more, for greater.  I’m convinced that 2023 should be our year of great expectation. 

And as long as God fathers it, the possibilities are endless.    

PRINCIPLE:  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. – Hebrews 11:6 KJV