Quiet everyone! Shh! Silence before God. Something’s afoot in his holy house. He’s on the move! Zechariah 2:13  (The Message)

Have you ever been living your life, going about your daily grind, and you realize that none of your plans have worked out?  Shipments of goods have been delayed and some have arrived with severe breakage so that the items we needed didn’t get here when they were expected, and our projects were delayed or cancelled. Government officials suddenly started reviewing regulations that had been in use for many years and now the programs have different names and don’t work like they used to. When you hear high level officials talking about these new regulations and programs, they act like these will revolutionize our society and we will be living in the land of milk and honey! When you hear talk from people affected by the new regulations and programs, they seem confused more than excited.

There seems to be a sense that the world is holding its breath, waiting for something big to come along. I have heard it said that, when a dam breaks and the water behind it comes pouring down the riverbed, there is a time when there is a great wind. The water pushes the wind before it so that there’s a moment of warning before the flood waters come. This same phenomenon is found in mountainous areas where there are deep arroyos or gullies. Sometimes there is a major rainstorm in the mountains and the water goes racing downhill, creating these steep sided gullies, and drowning everything in its way. I’ve also heard that, before a natural disaster, there is a moment when the earth seems to be paused in its course, waiting to see what will happen—a time of breathless expectation. We know that something’s coming, but we don’t know if it will be good or bad. All we know is that something is going to be changing.

Zechariah wrote his book when the Jews returned from Babylon. They had once been a mighty nation but, for many years, they had been beaten into submission, living under the rule of a foreign king. They had been divided with some of their people driven off to Babylon while some stayed in Jerusalem. Families were torn apart and they didn’t know who they were anymore.

We have, in a way, been in that same place. When the pandemic hit, we suddenly became isolated and no longer able to gather with others. Our cell phones took the place of our meetings when we could no longer get a cup of coffee with our friends. We couldn’t gather at the water cooler for informal discussions of issues—because we were mostly working from home. Many of us have lost our sense of identity and are trying to either get the old identity back or to find a new one.

But hush! Something’s stirring around us! God is on the move! Hang on to your hats!