This is the time of year we all take a little bit longer with thinking about out goals, contemplating our purpose, what we accomplished this year, how we can make changes to 
improve the coming year … tell me you relate. If you think goal setting and purpose seeking are a syndrome of modern times your thinking needs to be adjusted. As it turns out, people have been born for a purpose since the beginning of time. Maybe we just have so many more options we spend more time figuring it all out. Before you get too far into analyzing today, let’s go far back and see purpose in action.
In the first few verses from today’s Advent reading, Zachariah talks about God’s power to save his people and deliver them from the destruction of their enemies. He acknowledges their freedom to worship the Lord and how God’s people can live holy lives. Then he continues with revealing the purpose of his son, John. Just as John was born to fulfill a purpose, so is each of us. Zachariah tells that it was by design that his own son was born before Jesus. John would the one to tell everyone that the Master was coming to be their light in a dark world and to offer forgiveness for sin.
December 20 – Theme Joy
Luke 1:67-80 (The Message)
Then Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied,
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he came and set his people free.
He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives, and in the very house of David his servant, Just as he promised long ago through the preaching of his holy prophets:
Deliverance from our enemies and every hateful hand; Mercy to our fathers,
as he remembers to do what he said he’d do, What he swore to our father Abraham—
a clean rescue from the enemy camp, So we can worship him without a care in the world,
made holy before him as long as we live.
And you, my child, “Prophet of the Highest,” will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways, present the offer of salvation to his people, the forgiveness of their sins. Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, then showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the path of peace. The child grew up, healthy and spirited. He lived out in the desert until the day he made his prophetic debut in Israel.
Mary had a purpose ….Be Born in Me – Francesca Battistelli
Because of Grace we Press On