This year's hot toy

Jesus, teach me to think more about what's always popular: you! Amen.

John the Baptizer baptized many people in the Jordan River. He told them, "I'm baptizing you with water; but, when Jesus comes, He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit -- so be ready for Him!"

Every year, catalogs and commercials are full of pictures of toys that are "hot" this Christmas -- but next Christmas, the list of popular toys is totally different!

Why do the toys that everyone wanted last year seem so lame to you this Christmas? It might be because you got used to last year's toys. You got them as presents yourself, or your friends got them and you played with them over and over. Now, you're ready for something new.

This week's Gospel (Mt. 3:1-12) is about a big change. John the Baptizer has been bringing people to the Jordan River for a while, asking them to be sorry for their sins and pouring water over them as a symbol of God cleansing their hearts. People like that.

But now John is warning them that something else is about to become what everyone will want: baptism by Jesus, with the Holy Spirit. John says Jesus is about to start teaching them about God, and that following Jesus will be a kind of baptism that's totally different than what they're used to.

New toys are exciting. They do things you haven't seen before and help you use your imagination in new ways. But if a new toy is exciting, imagine how exciting a whole new way of living would be!

That's what John is promising if people are "baptized with the Holy Spirit" by Jesus: They'll learn to be close to God, to pray and to treat other people like they want to be treated.

Toys are just things, and next year there will be a new list of them -- but Jesus sticks around in our lives forever.