Mercy Me

This morning I read a devotional from Walter Wangerin's wonderful little book, Preparing for Jesus. The reading for today's date was entitled, "A Teaching: How Mercy Comes, What Mercy Is" and was based on Luke 1:57-63 which records the birth and naming of John, the Baptist.

An angel of the Lord had met the elderly priest, Zechariah, as he ministered in the temple and told him " ... your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John." When do you suppose Zechariah had prayed for a son? Recently? Personally, I doubt it. He was advanced in age and his wife was past the child bearing years. He'd probably abandoned that desire long before. Written it off in his mind as something that would never happen. Reconciled himself to it ... and probably with an element of regret. Ah! But the mercies of God!

Is there something in your life for which you've prayed for a long time? Perhaps something you've despaired of ever seeing in this lifetime? Something you've given up hoping for? Take heart. It may be many years since you prayed that prayer, but it was heard. And the mercies of God are the same today as in the days of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They are fresh every morning! His steadfast love towards you never fails. Think on these things and have HOPE. (Lamentations 3:22)

The scripture says that when Elizabeth conceived, she kept herself hidden for five months saying, "Thus the lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people." Barrenness was an enormous stigma in the Elizabeth's culture. She probably had felt the sting of pointed barbs from other women more times than she cared to recount. Wouldn't you think that if she had suffered reproach all these many years, she would be shouting the news of her pregnancy from the rooftops .... thumbing her nose at those who had put her down? I think that would have been my inclination. Ah! But the mercies of God!

Has God ever done something so special for you . . . something so intimately personal . . . that you simply want to hang onto it and savor its sweetness in privacy between you and Him for awhile? Perhaps that's how Elizabeth felt. I don't know. The scripture only says she "hid" herself. Ah! But the mercies of God!

He sent her precious little teenage relative, Mary, to come and be with her. Mary, who knew Elizabeth's secret because of divine revelation. Mary, who carried within her the greatest expression of God's mercy for all time. And Mary, with her youth looked upon the "senior" status of her kinswoman, Elizabeth, and said, of God "his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation." Elizabeth was a woman who feared God. Luke 1:6 says that she and her husband "were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord."

Ah! The mercies of God! Luke 1:57-58: "Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her." God's mercy came to Elizabeth in the birth of a son.

How does His mercy come to us? A baby delivered in old age? Perhaps. But perhaps not! Doesn't it come in that miracle we thought we had outlived? Doesn't it come in the "gift" we thought impossible to receive? And doesn't it ALWAYS astonish us!

God's mercy comes to us the same way the tiny infant son came to Elizabeth. . . as something which through us, God gives to us. Like a baby, it's something completely new and whole on its own. Like a newborn who we must nourish and care for, God's gift of mercy to us must be served and nourished. How glibly we use the word MERCY . . . at times not even thinking about what it really means.

What is mercy? These are some of Walter Wangerin's observations. God used them powerfully to speak to my heart this morning.

Mercy is:

• that which fulfills our heart's desire
• that which gives purpose to our lives
• when God grants me (or someone I love) the healing I could not expect (physical, emotional OR spiritual)
• when peace comes to me, though I had been desperately restless and afraid
• when I, who am weak, act with surprising strength
• when faith arises in my hopeless soul
• when I, whose heart was filled with hatreds, suddenly find forgiveness there
• when others love me even though I'm at my most unlovable
• when my children come home with reverence
• when the work of my hand praises God beyond my natural skill
• when I am what I ought to be

Whenever - however the impossible gift arrives for me, it is GOD. It is His mercy so great, that those around me (family and friends) are astonished to find me so blessed after all! Like Elizabeth nourished God's gift of mercy, her infant son, I must nourish his gifts of mercy toward me . . . healing, peace, forgiveness. . .

But let no one call those things by an earthly name or attribute them to an earthly source. Elizabeth's neighbors and relatives wanted her to name her son after his father, but Elizabeth and Zechariah faithfully gave him the name spoken by God through His heavenly messenger. They named the forerunner of our Lord, John.

For me . . . let no one look upon my healing from depression . . . my weight loss . . . my peace . . . my joy . . . whatever outward expression of God's mercy one might see in me and attribute them to any earthly name or source - a doctor, a counselor, perseverance, success. NO! Let no one think I earned or deserved it. It could not come from my "self " - my nature - my doing. It is MERCY! Pure and simple. MERCY! And the name God gives it is "Johanan", meaning "The Lord has been gracious."

O God, my Father, I am astonished by Your great mercy. You have been gracious far more abundantly than I could ever ask or think. You are matchless in Your grace and unending in Your mercy!