After nine months of being deaf and mute, the first words from Zechariah’s lips are words “blessing God.”
The people had supposed that this long-awaited child, born to aged parents would be “little Zachary.” But nine months earlier, the angel had appeared to Zechariah and said, “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John.”
“John” is a Hebrew word that means “God has shown favor.” This is a graced child who is called to express in his life God’s love, God’s favor to all people.
I too am graced, called to express in my life God’s love, God’s favor to all people.
There’s a lot to think about in this passage. Perhaps I should simply think about my own name – how and why it was given, how it sounded when spoken over me as a child.
And…how it sounds now when God speaks it.
Spend some quiet time with the Lord.
Music – The Christmas Eve ‘Miracle'
Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932) was a radio pioneer. Among other things, he helped to develop wireless telegraphy – the code was transmitted by radio waves, but the only sounds transmitted were dits and dashes.
Under his direction, engineers at General Electric produced and alternator with a frequency high enough to make possible the wireless transmission not only of Morse Code, but a whole range of sounds.
Fesseden quickly built a transmitting station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts. On Christmas Eve, 1906, wireless telegraph operators were startled to hear Christmas music coming over their receivers.