Fear

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son. 
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her. 
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.” 
But they answered her,
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.” 
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. 
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
“What, then, will this child be?
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.”

In today's gospel we hear about the story of Elizabeth and her baby, miraculous circumstances in there own right that were happening in parallel with the story of Jesus.  It appears that Baby John came out of the womb talking and "blessing God."  Sometimes God gets our attention in a pretty spectaccular way and our initial reaction is very often fear.  We are afraid of something that shouldn't be happening but it is, or we are afraid of the unknown, or we are afraid of what we don't completely understand.  How often do we hear in the Bible "Do not be afraid!"  It happens a lot because a part of the human condition involves being afraid.  God wants me to move beyond fear.  Faith overcomes fear.  Recognizing that God was "with him" [the baby I'm assuming] the neighbors went beyond fear.  More and more, I can move beyond fear too as I look for God's hand in things by going beyond my initial fears. God's hand might not even be clear enough to really see, but I can rest assured that it is there.