Once in a Lifetime

Have you ever had a "once in a lifetime" experience?

Was it a chance encounter with a celebrity? Maybe you got a hole in one in a golf game. Did you win a contest, championship, or tournament? Maybe it was something like giving birth to your only child or giving your daughter away at her wedding.

If you stop and think about it, you can probably come up with a lot of once in a lifetime experiences. It can be fun or painful to go down memory lane thinking about the times when you did something that you will likely never do again. When these opportunities arise, we should take advantage of them. Savor them. Soak them in. Take in the experience and brand it in your memory banks as much as you can. These experiences become part of the highlight reel of your life.

I was reading Luke 1 Saturday about Zacharias (some Bibles spell his name, Zechariah). Zacharias was a priest, the husband of Elizabeth, and father of John the Baptist. As he was performing his priestly duties in the temple one day, he had two once in a lifetime experiences. First, verse 9 tells us that it was a custom of the priestly office to choose by lot which priest would enter the holiest place in the temple to burn incense. Each priest could do this only one time in his life. At this particular time, Zacharias was chosen. This would have been the ultimate in the career of any priest.

It is no coincidence that during this time of unusual and intimate communion with God that Zacharias had his second once in a lifetime experience. God spoke to Zacharias through an angel. The angel of the Lord announced that his prayers would be answered and that Elizabeth, who had been unable to have a child, will indeed have a son. The angel instructed him to name the boy, John. He would grow to serve God in a special way as a forerunner to the Messiah. Indeed, John the Baptist was a powerful force in the days of the coming of the Messiah. He prepared the people to receive the soon to come Son of God.

If you were to ask Zacharias today which of his once in a lifetime experiences was the most dramatic, I would venture to guess that the day in the holy of holies with the angel of the Lord would be at the top of his list.

What once in a lifetime experiences does God have in store for you this week? Are there any divine appointments awaiting you soon? God brings these encounters to us in his time, of course, but I believe that we can often miss these encounters if we are not spiritually prepared for them. We must be sensitive to his leading and be aware of what he may be trying to show us. Like in Zacharias' case, God often speaks to us during times of intense devotion and close encounters with him.

Are you spending intimate time with God in prayer and devotion? Are you giving him a chance to speak to you?