Tales of the Unexpected - Part 2

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.
He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.
He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous —to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.” Luke 1:11-20

From the outside everything looks normal,
but deep, deep inside the temple
the heart-beat of the spirit of God is beating in the form of a messenger.
Zechariah's heart is beating too, wildly and loudly,
a relentless drum beat pounding in his ears.
So loud that Zechariah worries that it will drown out the prayers of the priests
worshipping adjacent to the Holy of Holies.
The angel cannot hear Zechariah's heartbeat,
but he sees the fear in his eyes.
"Do not be afraid, " he reassures the Priest, "your prayer has been heard."
"Which prayer?" wonders Zechariah,
but he knows, oh yes, he knows!
The prayer that was at first so fervant
secure in the knowledge that God can do anything,
but more muted and automated as the years passed
acknowedging that God can do anything,
but is the Master, not the Servant
and choses how he answers prayers.

Zechariah scarcely registers the role description for all his son will accomplish,
because the angel seems to have overlooked one thing.
Both Zech and his wife are old
very old
past the age of conceiving children

Then the angel points out that it is not God who has done the overlooking
but Zechariah himself.
For God can do anything,
even the impossible.
Then Zechariah remembered Abraham and Sarah and the son given to them in their old age.
"There is a precedent for this situation" he mused to himslef

Just as Zechariah is wondering how he will tell everyone,
the angel solves this probleem to by removing from him the power of speech
whch will not returrn until the child is born.

Then the angel left him.
Zechariah completed his priestly dutues.
and left the Holy of Holies before the rest wondered if needed to be dragged out.
"What I a lot I have to tell Elizabeth when I return home
and how full of joy she will be..."
and then he remembered.