This brief gospel reading tells three events in Jesus’ life:
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His baptism (where God claims him as God’s own Son)
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His wilderness experience (where God sends angels to tend him)
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His beginning of his preaching repentance and the nearness of God
“The common thread is God’s closeness.”
God’s nearness shapes our lives, as God claims, equips and sends us out. Again and Again, God meets us where we are, but doesn’t leave us there. Often, God meets us at the edge of things—in suffering, sorrow, uncertainty.
