Our story today is about listening.

John the Baptist shows up early in the Christmas story. So early that no one sees him.

His mother was 6 months pregnant with him. But although he couldn’t be seen as more than a baby bump, he made himself evident when a relative of his mother showed up to visit.

Mary was carrying Jesus, though she was not far along. Mary came to visit Elizabeth, a cousin of some sort. And when Mary called out “Elizabeth, I’m here”, John jumped at the sound.

Recently, someone said, “we forget that early in the Christmas story, two pregnant women talk about how their sons will overthrow the world order.”

Elizabeth and Mary laughed a bit, rejoiced a lot, and then spent three months talking. (It’s not part of this story, but it would have been a safe place for Mary and good company for Elizabeth)

John responded to the presence of God.

And then John spent his career proclaiming the coming presence of God.

“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

What would it look like if we recognized that the kingdom of heaven was at hand?

Some of us ask for that often: “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

We often point to the picture of peacefulness that we read about earlier, from Isaiah.

“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.”

It’s a delightful image.

We long for that kind of peacefulness. And we think it’s a thing we can do. We tell wolves to stop snarling. We tell lambs to stand up for themselves.

We forget that this image is actually about restoration.