We make a big deal about how Saint John the Baptist prepared the way for the Lord—saw him coming, witnessed the big epiphany moment when he baptized Jesus, told the crowd, “Behold, the Lamb of God”—and yet also said, “I did not know him,” and on top of that later sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

God knows us from the womb, scripture says. That’s a long acquaintance, and it comes with an intimate understanding of who we are and can become. No one can ever know us as God does.

The very next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and yelled out, “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world! This is the man I’ve been talking about, ‘the One who comes after me but is really ahead of me.’

Garrison Keillor, creator of the long-running radio show, “Prairie Home Companion,” is one of American’s best storytellers, and one of his best stories is called “Gospel Birds.”

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

The Lord was baptized . . . to cleanse waters, so that those waters . . . might have the power of baptism.