Reality

Imagine -

John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus the Nazarene -

the two of them probably grew up together;

maybe they played the little boy games of those days together

maybe their fanilies spent holidays together -

certainly their parents would have visited each other.

So the young John and the young Jesus would have known each other pretty well.

And yet, at the time when John revealed the 30 year old Jesus to the public as the promised Messiah,

John twice said: "I did not know Him."

It was only when John heard from God that the One upon whom he saw the Holy Spirit come down and remain, that John realised that his own cousin was the long awaited Messiah.

Imagine!

All unknowing, he had played catch-catch and hide-and-seek with the Son of God!

The Creator of the very trees and rocks they had climbed together as children now stood before John, revealed to him at last in truth.

Imagine

Jesus revealed in that kind of reality to us today - if we want to know Him.