When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. 

It was New Year’s day 1982 I think. I remember being in my cramped bed-sit in Morecambe, watching a Val Doonican special on the little colour TV someone had kindly passed on to me. The theme of the programme was ‘time’. Time truly is, as someone said, a one-way street, and we must move inexorably forward with it. That was 42 years ago, and I remember it as if it were yesterday. But there’s no going back, even if I wanted to (which I don’t!). Time marches on.

Today’s verse, however, is not simply about time per se, but God’s timing. It wasn’t only the biological time for Elizabeth to have her baby, because her gestation period was over. It was also about the divine timetable. Elizabeth’s ‘due date’ was known in heaven long before it became known on earth.

As we pray, and wait for the Lord, we may wonder whether we are facing a denial. But it may just be a delay.

“Mercy may seem slow, but it is sure. The Lord in his unfailing wisdom has appointed a time for the outgoings of his gracious power, and God’s time is the best time.” C.H.Spurgeon.