And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Before this moment we see St. John the Baptist preparing the way for our Lord. Baptizing many, and many pondering and asking if John might be the One. John knowing he was not that One, but He was coming. “John answered them all, saying,l “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.”

As I pondered this today, I come to remember that John also had a first encounter with our Lord as he was in his mothers womb. The first leap of faith. There was the desire for our Savior planted as our Lord was hidden. The first encounter which stirred in him to “seek” not knowing that our Lord had always been with him. It was John’s leap of faith, trusting in the Voice calling to him, that when our Lord came to him again at the Jordan, which after his time of preparing, was the complete Manifestation of what once was his “Personal Revelation” of our Lord. St. John the Baptist’s leap again, in proclaiming outward “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

How many times our Lord “passed by” St. John the Baptist through his life, feeding that desire and building his faith is where I find myself today on this beautiful feast and how our Lord loved him first, also, as He loves us first.