T
he days that followed stretched into years of happiness for Elizabeth and Zechariah. Almost from his birth little John lived and breathed in the ambience of the Scriptures. Since the events surrounding the angelic visitation, Zechariah had become more than zealous in raising his only child as God intended. A razor never touched his hair and it grew until it fell to his waist. John did not grow up as the other children. As one in preparation to be a Nazarite, from the beginning his ‘differentness’ alienated him from friends he might otherwise enjoy. He seemed withdrawn and sad to those who didn’t know him well. If the truth of the matter be told, he laughed and enjoyed himself more than most. His parents thought him happy and well adjusted. John simply didn’t need to be around others as much as other boys needed their peers. Content to draw his companionship from within himself and from his intimacy with God the Father, John formed his character into a pillar of internal rectitude. After his parents died, he left the family home to live a solitary existence in the wilderness of Judea. They would never know how their son came to his grim end at the scheming of Herodias, her daughter Salome and the cowardice of Herod Antipas.
