Listen

John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark 1:6-8

Think

John the Baptist is one of my favorite people in Scripture. He spends a lot of time in the wilderness and perhaps that accounts for his camel hair clothes and his diet of crunchy locusts and sweet, wild honey. I appreciate those details about John, but what impresses me the most about John the Baptist is how comfortable he is in his own skin. He was clear about what God’s call for his life was: to call people to be baptized and then to baptize them.

He was also clear about how his vocation wasn’t all about him, but about God, and that God was soon sending someone else who was stronger than him and who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. And that was okay for John. John the Baptist was at peace with who and whose he was, and that allowed him to live out the call that God had given him for his life. May we, too, be at peace that God loves us just as we are.

Rosy Robson

Pray

Creator God, thank you for creating me just as I am. Help me to be at peace with who I am in you. Empower me to live out the holy callings you have placed upon my life. Amen.

Go

Go now to a responsible involvement in the world.
Be at peace,
for God who created you,
Christ who redeems you,
and the Spirit who sustains you
go with you today and every day.

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