Luke 1:14-15, 17b
“But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord…and he will go on before the Lord…to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Zechariah and Elizabeth were quite along in years when the angel Gabriel announced that they would be parents. Can you imagine having reached your golden years only to be told you are going to be parents for the first time? Not only that, the angel tells them what to name their child and what his future will hold! God certainly had a plan for their son who would become known as John the Baptist, and a future all mapped out before he was even born.
Our own birth announcement may have been a bit more conventional but His choosing of us is not exclusive to John the Baptist —”He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” (Ephesians 1:4) God chose each one of us to be in fellowship with Him and to choose Him above all others. He has a plan for our lives all mapped out!
Father in heaven, it is amazing to think that You have known from the beginning the plan You have for each of us. Help us, O God, to be holy and blameless before You with hearts that are yielded to You. Just as John the Baptist was born to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord,” may You prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord this Christmas, and for that day when Jesus comes again to rule the earth. For Your sake, amen.
