“And you, my little son…”

My personal devotion today:
  

Thursday 1-1-15 (At home)      Gen 1-2        Luke 1

S.  Luke 1:76-77 And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord.  You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. NLT

O.  Zechariah was prophesying over his new tiny baby, John… who would become known as John the Baptizer.  With a tender voice he looks down at a little baby and sees what others cannot see… for God has given him spiritual vision.

A.  It seems to me that there is something precious about this moment.  An aged father, old enough to be a grandfather, cradles his newborn child in his arms and looks up toward heaven. 

What did my father and mother see, when they looked down on a tiny baby nestled in their arms exactly 83 years ago?  Did they pray over me?  I am sure that they did?  Did they see anything special?  Probably not.  In fact, they were probably troubled by what they saw.  For my mother tells me that I had a strange tumor hanging attached to my head just in front of my left ear.  I was born in our rented house on the second floor, probably with a lady maternity helper.  In those days the doctor would come to the house and I am told he took a tool and cut the tumor from the place where it was attached by a cord-like section of cartilage.  To this day I have the reminder.  It is a small, pointed bump of cartilage just in front of my left ear hardly noticeable.  I was certainly nothing special to behold… but I had a praying mother and father and I am sure they cradled me in their arms often and looked up to God many times to speak words of blessing upon me. 

P.  Oh God!  You took me out of the womb knowing what they could not know.  You let them see the tiny figure complete with its obvious flaws from birth.  Maybe You let them forget what they saw and made them able to leave the ugly behind and see a child with hope for a future.  I doubt that they saw a future missionary.  They were consumed with the task of raising four and eventually five children during a terrible economic depression.  But I am sure that their prayers and blessings and their tender care of this tiny, unsightly little child shaped me into a little boy, and later a teen-age boy who in spite of his many flaws, wanted to know You and serve You.  Thank you, Lord, for Zechariah and Elisabeth… and thank you for my parents, Lester and Rachel Hiatt, who prayed over me as a tiny baby.  As a little baby they dedicated me to You and… You knew even then… that one day, I would have the privilege, something like John the Baptizer, in the words of his father, Zechariah, tell to “people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins.”  How I praise You today!  Amen. 

Ralph