Some Assembly Required

I  love volleyball. After the serve, each team has three touches to get the ball over the net to the opponent’s turf. At the competitive levels, the three touches have the same pattern: first, the reaction hit that simply gets the ball into the air after the other side sends it over. Then there’s the second touch: the set. This light touch is an easy-up that “sets” up the third touch: the spike, the light tap, or whatever play that will send the ball to an unprotected part of the opponent’s turf. The cycle repeats until one team misses.
So often we get stuck in the belief that we are the first or third touches. We really want to be the third touch: the one who gets things done, achieves a goal, has the final word. So often we are the first touches: the light tap to another, the quick response to the ball as it comes to us. I believe the most important touch is the second: the one who sets up what comes next. There’s incredible power in this role, but it comes from a place of humility, a knowledge that you aren’t going to be the one who scores a point.
In this passage, the long-awaited son of Zechariah and Elizabeth is born into a priestly family. Zechariah has been instructed by God to name the child John—not a family name. Zechariah, unable to speak since questioning the news of the birth, writes the name John—but John will not be a priest. He will be a prophet setting up the final touch for the one who will follow him: Jesus of Nazareth, soon to be born in Bethlehem.
John won’t score the point, but John will be the one who sets up the One who is to come.