They said to her, “But no one in your family has that name!” and they made signs to his father for the name he wanted to give him.
Zechariah asked for a writing tablet, and wrote on it, “His name is John;” and they were very surprised.
Immediately, Zechariah could speak again, and his first words were in praise of God.
A holy fear came on all in the neighborhood, and throughout the hill country of Judea the people talked about these events.
All who heard of it, pondered in their minds, and wondered, “What will this child be?” For they understood that the hand of the Lord was with him.
As the child grew up, he was seen to be strong in the Spirit; and he lived in the desert, until the day when he appeared openly in Israel.
REFLECTION:
It was John who came first. He was born first. The angel came to his father first. And yet when Jesus was born, John took second place.
He was eclipsed by his younger cousin. He even wondered whether it was he who should be baptized by Jesus at the Jordan.
This was a man who came first and yet knew his place in the unfolding plan of God. And he was happy and content with that – with taking second place,
with being eclipsed, with being simply the one who “prepared the way”. That was what was truly noble about John, in it lay his greatness among all men,
for he knew his place in the history of salvation, and it was a great place, greater than many.
How difficult it is, at times, to be like John, to efface ourselves so that Jesus and him alone can be known?
How difficult it is, not to promote ourselves, not to have ourselves in the limelight, not to have the attention on us rather than on another?
And yet that is what John did; he did his work as best he could, and then handed it over to the one that really mattered,
the one for whom he spent his life preparing the way: Jesus Christ.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2020