What Will Your Child Be?

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

You would recall that about nine months prior to the incidents related in today’s passage, an angel appeared to the high priest Zechariah with the news that his prayers for a child were answered. “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John” (Luke 1:13). For his doubt, Zechariah was struck dumb until the child was born. And here, we find him regaining his voice. While there might be plenty to reflect upon here, there is something else that often escapes our notice: the peer pressure that Zechariah and Elizabeth suddenly found themselves facing.

As friends and neighbors are given to do at the birth of a child, they dropped in to visit the parents. “What are you going to name him,” they wanted to know. When Elizabeth said he was to be called John, they were shocked. The name of the child reflected not just a favorite relative, but the identity of the clan itself. Male children would be given the name of an elder, and the boy would be expected to follow in his footsteps. They wanted the boy named after Zechariah, believing he would take after his father. “Nobody has this name in your family,” they protested, and turned to Zechariah believing he might talk some sense into his wife.

However, he asked for a tablet and wrote on it, “His name is John”. By giving him this name, Zechariah and Elizabeth were being obedient to God who had asked for the boy to be named John. But they were defying convention in the process, risking the anger of their friends and neighbors. However, when Zechariah regained his speech after he did this, they realized that God was involved in this decision. They also realized that God’s hand was upon the child and wondered: “What then will this child become?”

Did you wonder when your child was born, “What will this child become?” I am fairly certain you expected her (or him) to become somebody great, perhaps fulfilling your own unfulfilled desires in the process. I am fairly certain that the people around you had their own expectations of your child, and might have influenced you in its upbringing. But did you ever consider what plans God may have had for your child? It hardly mattered, right? What mattered was what you wanted her to do? Well, here’s something for all of us to remember going forward. Our children are on loan to us; they truly belong to God. So, it might be wise to let him have a say in their destiny. 

And then everybody will wonder: What then will this child be?

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here: https://youtu.be/z9z5IzEiqcw