God's Humor

This morning I was reading through Luke again and I was struck by the humor in one of the stories about the birth of Jesus, that of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Here are the critical verses:

Luke 1:20, 23-24, 64 NIV
"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.”

[23] When his time of service was completed, he returned home. [24] After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion.

[64] Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.

So as I was reading this, I realized how funny this situation was, and actually started laughing, hopefully you find the humor in this as well. Setting the stage for this comedy - Here we have a man and his wife, well past the age of being able to have children, and God takes away the husbands ability to talk, right after He tells him that his wife and he are going to have a baby. I think there is a whole bunch of stuff that happened between the end of verse 23 and the beginning of verse 24.

What struck me as funny was imagining Zechariah coming home and trying to explain to Elizabeth this whole situation, without being able to speak. Granted that Zechariah could write, but only so much can be communicated that way, and here he is trying to convince her that they needed to try and get pregnant, and that he saw an angel, and why he lost his voice, etc. I find that quite humorous, and can imagine myself trying to convince my sweetheart of something this significant without the ability to talk, and failing miserably.

Add to this his inability to talk for close to 10 months and it becomes quite a bit funnier. I am wondering how does he explain to his friends and family when Elizabeth becomes visibly pregnant. I can imagine all the one sided conversations that happen in his house prior to the birth. Anyway, I could go on imagining situations and circumstances that would be funny or awkward or both.

I just think looking at the humanity of this situation, and seeing the humor in it is proof that God enjoys a good laugh!