It seems fitting that after three weeks of contemplating the question "What Child is this?" that today we hear not from the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist, nor angels or shepherds, or the spirit-filled elders Anna and Simeon.

No, today we hear from THE VOICE that matters the most: God himself! As if to dispel any lingering doubts about the identity of that babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, God sets the record straight and in so doing shifts the focus back on us: Now that you know the truth, what are you going to do?

This Feast moves us from the manger in Bethlehem to the Jordan River; from the position of passively watching and waiting to see how this “carpenter’s son” is going to turn out ~ to confronting us with a decision to believe or not to believe that he really is the Anointed One with whom God’s favor rest!

Today we come out from the shadows of the dimly lit manger into the light of Jesus the Messiah who can look us in the eye and ask us the same question that we once asked of him: What child is this? Or more specifically, whose child are you? By celebrating the baptism of the Lord we are invited to reflect on the significance of our own baptism and the new identity that God gave us on the day that we were born again of water and the Holy Spirit!

Many came to the manger to see Jesus but as we approach the Lord coming up from the waters of baptism we must take note that it is now he who fixes his gaze on us! He waits to see whether we will follow him into the river to receive the grace and strength to walk as the children of God we claim we already are.