Thursday, December 8: Scripture – Matthew 3:4-6
4 “Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him,
6 and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.”
John does not seem like the typical person of his time. I’m pretty sure most people didn’t eat insects for lunch! Even though John was kind of an outsider, he paved the way for the Messiah to come. A few years down the road, when Jesus was in the height of his earthly ministry, his critics found him strange. He ate with tax collectors and hung out with lepers, making him an outsider. As a homeschooled high school student, sometimes I feel like an outsider. Because I was born early and have had some academic struggles in the past, I have been homeschooled all my life. It’s the perfect fit for me, but sometimes other people find it weird. However, now that I think about it, neither John nor Jesus was normal for their time, but both were used for God’s glory on the earth. Maybe, being a little bit weird is not such a bad thing after all!
Prayer: Dear God, help me to answer your call for me, even if it might make me a little bit of an outsider. Help me to not worry about what others think, like John and Jesus. Amen.
Meredith Welfare