The One who calls you is the same one who called Moses out of the burning bush (Ex.3:4), the one who called the boy Samuel who was sleeping in the temple (I Sam.3:4), the one who called Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3-8). The One who calls you is the same one who called to Jacob in a dream (Gen.28:12-15), and to Mary’s espoused Joseph (Mt.1:20, Mt.2:13), and to the apostle Peter (Acts 10:11-16), the same one who called the barren, Sarah (Gen.18:9-15), Hannah (I Sam.1:17-20), and Elizabeth (Lk.1:8-25), and the virgin, Mary (Lk.1:26-38), and the one who called John, the forerunner, in today’s gospel.

The One who calls you is the one who has counted the hairs on your head (Mt.10:30), the one who calls you by name and claims you as his own (Is.43:1), the one who will not forget you even if everyone else were to (Is.49:15), the one who has inscribed you on the palms of his hands (Is. 49:16). The One who calls you is the one who seeks you when you are lost (Lk.15:4), who sees you when you are far off and runs to embrace you (Lk.15:20), who assuages your thirst with living water (Jn.4:10), who is the one who heals whatever is amiss in your life, in your body, mind, and spirit (Ex.15:26). The One who calls you is the one who is a “prayer-answering God (DOL co-worker), the one who is love (I Jn.4:8b), the one who meets you where you are, as you are (Author, Marcia Hollis), the one who is with you always, to the end of the age (Mt.28:20b).

The One who calls you is the one we know in scripture as God, Lord, Almighty, Everlasting Father, the Most High, the Holy One, the Savior, Our Sovereign, King, the God of Jacob, the Lord of hosts, the Shepherd of Israel, the Mighty One of Jacob, the one who God’s people experience as my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my light and my salvation, the one we call Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, Son of God, and Holy Spirit.

Regardless of our name for the One who calls us, we know from our own experience that God is faithful and that God calls us to be faithful in our journey through life as we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.