Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (New International Version)
We who seek to love the world need an infusion of God's strong and tender grace right now.
Like John, we are in a time of crisis,
though we did not choose it.
Like John, we were born into a time
that calls for us to trust the wild kindness of God.
None of us can know ahead of time what this trusting might mean for us. Yet the Spirit calls as if maybe even now it will become possible for us to say yes, each in our particular circumstances, to loving one another, near and far, with the sweet, wild kindness of God.