Daily Devotional for Thursday 7th December
A Gift From God
The story picks up with the birth of Elizabeth’s baby. New babies are normally a source of joy to family and friends. John is no exception but there is the added joy of knowing that the child is the gift of God and the result of God’s faithfulness. The parents are God-fearing people so they took the baby to the Temple to be circumcised and to be named. The fact that Gabriel specified names for both John and Jesus continues the link between the two births and indicates that their names were significant. At this time, it was believed that in the very act of conferring a name they were endowing the child with some characteristic.
Here, God has chosen the name. ‘John’ means ‘the Lord is gracious.’ Elizabeth is emphatic that this should be his name and in obedience to what he had heard from Gabriel, Zechariah confirmed this choice. With this departure from family names, there is the suggestion that John would grow up not to be a representative for his family but a prophet for the whole of Israel. Observing the debate over John’s name and especially the miraculous return of Zechariah’s speech, the witnesses and even those throughout the hill country (v 65) were filled with amazement and fear as they sensed that God was working in their midst and that this child had a significant future. So, an ever-widening circle of people reflected on the meaning of these events, as Luke prepares us for the story of John’s ministry.
Time to reflect…
We are so familiar with these stories that it can be hard for us to capture the sense of amazement and newness that the original witnesses experienced. The excitement created by circumstances around John’s birth prepares the readers for the still more amazing story that is to come. The result is that this becomes a topic of general conversation in the whole region. Is it possible that if we were able to recapture the sense of wonder we might be able to help those around us (for whom these stories may be new) to see them as meaningful truths rather than legends around Christmas.
Pause to pray…
Think of someone to whom you might talk to about the wonder of Christmas then pray for an opportunity and for the Holy Spirit to be at work in that situation.
