Speechless with Joy

Speechless with Joy

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name.’ Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, ‘What then will this child become?’ For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

Luke 1:57-66

The birth of my daughter was a memorable event that I will never forget. 

Having to provide comfort while really not comprehending the pain and the beauty that my wife was experiencing. As she laboured I prayed, and prayed and prayed some more, trying to understand, at what time was I supposed to experience this joy that others had spoken of? Like waiting for the baby to pop out with cheers and applause, with confetti in the air. I was just a bloke, and I was out of my depth.

When the baby arrived, there were no cheers, no applause, no confetti, just reassurance that the baby was fine and healthy, and my wife was relieved from the pains of labour. So where was the joy? Every time I looked into my baby girl’s eyes, I breathed it in. This tiny little child, who hadn’t spoken a word, who had only cried out for her mother’s warmth, somehow demanded all of my love. I’d only just met her, and yet love had broken through and barged its way into my world.

In the early hours of the morning, going home to get some rest, I walked out of the hospital with no words to describe what I had just witnessed. Yes, it was a birth, but it was much more. No words to articulate it - it was as if I was tongue-tied and speechless. The darkness was lifting, the night was becoming day, when the birds begin to sing. In my Nyungar language, we call this time Djida — the first light, when the birds sing.

That’s what I named my daughter. Djida.

I think back now and I realise - this is what it means when love breaks through. It doesn’t always crash in with noise and fanfare. Sometimes it comes quietly, like a fragrance you can’t resist breathing in. It leaves you without words, but with a heart overflowing. 

A father’s joy at God’s faithfulness. A joy that bursts forth transforming Zachariah's silence into praise. A joy we are reminded of in the season of Advent.

In Jesus we see God's great love breaking through - and when we do, we can never be the same again.

Pastor Darren Garlett is a Whadjuk Noongar man and Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries (ATSIM) with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. ATSIM is passionate about empowering Indigenous leadership, strengthening local ministries, sharing the hope of the gospel with communities across Australia and serving with compassion and love.

This devotional is the seventeenth in a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2025 reflecting on the realities of our broken world along with the unshakable hope that love still breaks through. It explores how God’s love disrupts, heals, and transforms - breaking through darkness, despair, and injustice to bring light, joy, and renewal.

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Common Grace is a diverse movement of individuals, churches and communities passionate about Jesus and justice. We have come together as those from different Christian traditions who stand in the continuity of the historic Christian faith, centred on the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as witnessed to in holy scripture. This series highlights the diversity of followers of Jesus across these lands. These voices may not agree with one another (or with you), but they are each an expression of longing for the God whose love we see break through in Jesus.

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