Zechariah “One Sleepless Night”

A verse-by-verse Bible Study of Zechariah.   “One Sleepless Night”

Steve and Julie got us started on the Grandparent’s track almost 19 years ago when they brought Michael into the world.

They were living near us at the time, so when we got the phone call that they were on the way to the hospital…wow! it was time!  We rushed to the hospital, too, and waited.   We were right there wanting to be a part of the excitement and joy when he was born.  Everybody was in a party mood – all grandparents were there – and even a few of Steve & Julie’s friends.  All of us got to go into the room with Julie, a few at a time, and talk celebrate with Julie & Steve while we were waiting.    (This whole process was a huge shock to me.  There was no timing, no pain, no groaning, no little puffs of air while making it “through” a contraction – the advent of the epidural had completely changed the way women have babies…and I was totally unaware.   Nice change, by the way…..not complaining…I was just so amazed J)

It was a really fun and exciting time – lots of laughing and talking out in the waiting area.  And when Steve came out of the delivery room to tell us he had a son, he came striding down the hall, big as life, spread his arms out and said “It’s a Boy”!!!   We all congratulated him with lots of laughter and slapping on the back.  He walked up to me and gave me a hug – and when I threw my arms around him, too, he started crying.  We stood in the middle of the waiting room with our arms around each other and we both cried.

You know what my thought was at that time?  I stood there with my arms around Steve, thinking…”I wish I had held him more….I wish when he was little, I had held him on my lap more.”  When we had Steve we were very young ourselves…I was nineteen years old, and he just went everywhere with me.  He was on my hip, he was in the car seat, he was at church meetings…we were starting churches…so he was also in a lot of church nurseries.  We just went go-go-go all the time.  It was a wonderful life, but I didn’t have a whole lot of time to just hold him.  And when I stood in the waiting room, knowing that his own baby boy was waiting back in the delivery room for him, I thought to myself, “I wish I had held him more.”  If I had just had this little glimpse of the future – standing here in the hospital waiting room with Steve – I might have lived better, then, in the past – knowing what the future held.

Knowing what the future holds – that’s the wonderful gift the LORD, through Zechariah, is giving this handful of Jews living in about 400 BC.  Little glimpses of the future.