Last Saturday Sarah’s air conditioner went down. So she and Abby and Lucas spent the weekend with us. On Sunday evening she noted that it was the longest day of the year. “We are on our way to Christmas,” she said. Well, when its one is in a midst of a string of 90 degree plus days it can seem a long way from Christmas.
Indeed,” we are on the far side of sun from Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth,” as the article in Sundays and Seasons put it.
June 24th is the day set aside to remember Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist. However, what gifts does one give for Forerunnermas? Could we buy a box of chocolate covered grasshoppers at the Chocolate Factory? Might one purchase the latest in sackcloth, fit for the repentance he demanded, from Sacks and More at the Galleria? What is the current rage in camel’s hair and leather belts? Perhaps we could go to Ace hardware and pick up an axe or a winnowing fork.
However, John would not want such attention called to himself. He came announcing, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.” He said of his cousin Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” When Jesus came to be baptized, he called out, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
John was all about preparing the way for the coming of the Christ. The question for us as we swelter here in St. Louis is, “How are we able to be a path that leads others straight the Christ?
Prayer: Almighty God, through John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, You once proclaimed salvation. Now grant that we may know this salvation and serve You in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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