You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Tuesday, December 20th, 2020. This week on the Catholic Sprouts we are focusing in on John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, who prepared people to receive

Jesus' public ministry. So before we go to all the things

that John the Baptist did, let's go back and look a little bit at his history. You probably know that

John the Baptist is a bit of a miracle baby. Like a lot of other people in the Bible, his parents

were old and they thought they would never have a baby, that it was just impossible. Now,

let's think of some other people in the Bible that had the same situation. Probably the most

important ones are Abraham and his wife wife Sarah. Remember, they thought they

never have a baby themselves, but then God gave them Isaac and through that the whole tribe

of Israel. Well, Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth, John the Baptist parents, were in the same boat.

However, nothing is impossible for God.

So one day, well, Zeichariah was in the temple.

Now, he was a priest.

He was born to the priestly tribe.

So he was in the temple offering sacrifice.

While he was there, in the innermost part, in the sanctuary,

the holiest place, an angel appeared to him and gave him the shocking news that he would be a father,

that his wife would conceive a child. And all of these remarkable things about what this child would do and be,

well, Zachariah, he didn't believe it. He thought it was impossible. He questioned. He doubted.

Regardless, God continued forward with his perfect plan. Elizabeth became pregnant, but as punishment,

Zachariah lost his ability to speak. He was cast mute. So all through this pregnancy,

he couldn't speak. He couldn't speak. Finally, Elizabeth has the child. It's a boy. Now, all the people in the house assume that the child

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