At the same time, there was a man named Zechariah who had a wife named Elizabeth; moreover, she was the same Elizabeth who was Mary’s cousin. Zechariah and his wife were clean-living people who loved and respected God, but were sad because they were old and didn’t have any children. Zechariah was a leader in the synagogue, which was the Jewish temple. On a particular day, it was his responsibility to do some work in the temple while the people prayed outside. As Zechariah was doing his work he was standing near a religious table in the synagogue -- when suddenly, standing at the right of it appeared an angel of God.

Zechariah was afraid, but the angel told him not to worry, and that God had heard Zechariah’s prayer to have a baby, and God was going to allow Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth to have a baby. Zechariah was told the baby would be called John and would bring great happiness. John would have the Holy Spirit in him from birth the Bible says. The Holy Spirit is part of God and is God. We call this the Trinity. Trinity means a union of three: God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. John would never be allowed to drink wine or any other fermented drink. The angel said John would bring back many of the people of Israel to God.

The angel told Zechariah that John would make disobedient people obedient and would get the people ready for Jesus’ arrival.

Zechariah didn’t believe the angel because he said he and his wife were old and therefore, she wouldn’t be able to have a baby. The angel told Zechariah that because Zachariah hadn’t believed the words of God, then he wouldn’t be able to speak until the day the baby was born. This immediately happened, and when Zachariah went outside and the people realized he couldn’t speak, they knew he had seen a vision.

After work that day he went home to his wife. She was happy and thanked God for allowing her to have baby.

After the angel left Mary, she went up into the hill country of Judea to visit Elizabeth, and as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice, the baby in her stomach started to jump around and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

In a loud voice Elizabeth said that Mary was the most blessed of all the women in the world, and the baby (Jesus) that she had in her womb was the most blessed of all. Elizabeth told Mary it was an honor to have Mary in her house, and asked why she herself (Elizabeth) was so blessed to have Mary visit her. She then told Mary that the moment she heard Mary’s voice, the baby had moved. She told Mary she (Mary) was blessed because she believed the angel.

Mary then sang a song where she said she was happy because God had remembered her, and because now all the people in the future would call her blessed. She called God’s name Holy, said God’s forgiveness and mercy went to all those who feared him, and that God also hurt those who were proud in their thoughts, and did the same for kings. God also lifted up the humble and gave the hungry good things, but took away from the rich. She ended by singing how God had been merciful to Israel.

When the day came for John to be born he was given the name John, which made family members and neighbors ask why? because there was nobody else in the family with that name. When Zechariah was asked what he thought about this he asked for something to write on, but suddenly he could speak, so he told them the baby’s name would be John. The people heard this and were amazed, so they spread this news all around all the land.

Zechariah then sang a song where he praised God for coming to rescue the people. He said God now brought salvation to his people. Salvation means that those who believe in Jesus will go to heaven, forever. He said God brought protection to Israel from its enemies because He (God) had promised He would. Zechariah then said John would be a prophet who would go ahead and get things ready for Jesus. Jesus would bring us to heaven by getting our sins forgiven. He referred to Jesus as a light who would shine in the darkness of death, and would guide us in the path of peace.

When John became a man, he lived in the desert and wore only camel hair clothes and a leather belt. John’s arrival in the desert, as well as his job, was mentioned many years before in Isaiah 40:3, where Isaiah says a man will arrive in the desert and tell everyone to get ready for the arrival of Jesus. The man is described as a voice in the desert, calling. John did just that: he stood in the desert and called; however, for now he was still a baby.

In this passage we see that God listens to the prayers of righteous and godly people as Zechariah and Elizabeth had lived humble lives and had prayed many prayers for a child, and now God had answered their prayers. Prayers can get immediate responses from God or can take many years; however, the point is: God answers prayers in His time, in His way, and according to His plan. When we have faith in God we know that it is not important what we want, but the only thing that is important is what God wants, which is always perfect.

The Trinity is the grouping together of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit, who are all one. They are all one being, but also have different parts and responsibilities. How can they all be one, and the one be all three at the same time? This is not for us to understand or worry about, but just to accept. We don’t know what is in the middle of the sun, why some eyes are a certain color, of even why we die, because some things are just too big for us to understand; however, God is impossible to understand. What we lack in understanding of God, we can make up for in believing in Him. The unbeliever or the person who is weak in faith will find the Trinity hard to believe, but the believer who is strong in faith will say, “Who cares what I know and don’t know about God; I believe anyway.”

We see that God sometimes punishes for disbelief as in when Zechariah refuses to believe that his wife will have a baby, and God leaves him without speech until the baby arrives. When we do not believe or trust God, his punishments are not always as dramatic as in Zechariah’s case, but they still happen. Our disbelief can cause us to not get what we ask for, and this is a form of punishment.

When Mary visits Elizabeth we learn that God gives mercy to those who fear Him. To fear God is to love, respect and obey Him, and part of this is to forgive and give mercy to those who hurt us in order for God to do the same for us. We also learn that God hurts the proud, because to be proud is to believe that we are something special, or have something special -- which is false, because all things come from God.

Mary ends by saying how God raises the humble, feeds the hungry and is merciful to Israel.