They had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; they were both well along in years … The angel said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.  Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son” (Luke 1:7, 13).

In 1951, Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes wrote the poem “A Dream Deferred.” Specifically referencing the long-delayed dream of racial equality, Hughes employs vivid similes to convey hopelessness: deferred dreams “dry up like a raisin in the sun,” “fester like a sore,” “stink like rotten meat,” and “sag like a heavy load.” With prescience of the race riots to come, Hughes wonders in his concluding line: do dreams deferred “explode”? 

Perhaps you’ve longed for something for a very long time, prayed about it for years even, and God has been silent. How have you responded? With hopelessness, feeling your dreams are rotting and spoiling from lack of attention? Do you want to explode with anger at God? 

What about another response? What about Zechariah’s response? An old man himself with an equally aged - and barren - spouse has prayed for decades for a child. The years of barrenness must have been “a heavy load.” But as tempting as it must have been to give up on this dream of a son, a longing now beyond hope, he still prays. He still worships. He doesn’t surrender to bitterness or festering anger.

Some dreams are deferred beyond our lifetime. Some take years to be realized, and honestly, some may never be. Some are fulfilled exactly the way we prayed for; some in a way we never would have expected. How could Zechariah and Elizabeth have expected to have a baby at their age? But God had prepared His answer long before they experienced childlessness; He chose to have them wait. 

How fitting that Zechariah’s name means God remembers. It had been four hundred years since God had spoken to His people, decades since this couple began longing for a child. Dreams have been deferred but not forgotten. How fitting that Elizabeth’s name means oath of God. God promised to send a Son, itself a long-deferred prophecy, but first, this son - John - must come. How fitting that John’s name means God is gracious. 

Isn’t He though? God is gracious in our waiting. He is gracious whether that dream is fulfilled or not. 

Reacting with bitterness or exploding with anger over an unanswered prayer may offer emotional release, but is that the way? We’re still fighting the racial inequality Hughes addressed seventy years ago. There’s a better way to face the years of frustration of unanswered prayers. Rather than letting ourselves dry up, fester, or sag with heaviness as we look back on what-might-have-been’s, what about open, honest conversation with God about His long delay? Pour out your heart, and share what you’re hoping for in 2023. Above all, keep praying. Just ask Zechariah about dreams deferred.