Sometimes hope feels hard to hold on to. Sometimes it feels delayed, even forgotten like our prayers are met with silence.

We begin our Advent series Heaven Breaks Through with a message entitled “Heaven Breaks Through Despair with Hope.” Our guides are Zechariah and Elizabeth, a faithful couple who had given up on the dream of having a child. They were old, labeled “barren,” and burdened with the sense of disgrace. Their story mirrors the people of Israel, who had been waiting for centuries, weary from silence and longing for God to act.