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 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.
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.
- Little Blue Book, December 23