There are no coincidences

We often miss one of the great stories of the Bible, the story of John and his birth. Remember Elizabeth? Remember Zachariah? A childless couple hanging around, doing the right thing before God?

Remember Zachariah carrying out his job before God, working a shift in the Temple? Remember the angel of God appearing to him?

That's the kind of stuff I miss, by the way. The angel of God stuff, the appearances, the flat-out assuredness that God gave some in scripture. I WANT YOU TO DO ...

That would be kind of swell, wouldn't it? No guessing. No possible mistakes. Just an appearance by God, Jesus, an angel of the occasional talking donkey and whap, a person goes about God's business.

Except, even the appearances didn't always work. If you really remember the Zachariah story, you remember Zachariah saying, "Do you really excpect me to believe this?" or words to that effect. Then you remember Gabriel saying, shup up yo mouth, or words to that effect and Zachariah did, literally, for months.

This doing God's will stuff is not the easiest of all missions, friends. Sometimes we veer off path without a single prompt. Sometimes we do the wrong thing absolutely without provacation. Sometimes we are just unmistakedly, unwarrantly human. And in our humanity, like Adam, we fail and we fall.

That's why Elizabeth had John so that John could point the way to Jesus. Like the blue lights at an airport, John was here to land the Jesus plane.

A couple who was childless had a child who one day would say, "Behold, the Lamb of God."

There are no coincidences. Take note.