Read
Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.
Mark 1:6
Reflect
Fred Zariczny doesn’t look like most Christians you’ve met. He has long hair and tattoos, often dresses in black leather and rides a motorcycle. For years, he dealt drugs and rode with an infamous motorcycle club. But one day in 1977, the Lord moved in Fred’s heart, and he accepted Christ. Since then, Fred has had a heart for bikers and has preached Christ to people in that world.
If people judged Fred based on his appearance, they might think that he was anything but a Christian. But if they could see Fred the way God sees him – in his heart – they would know that he is completely sold out to the Lord.
That’s the way I imagine John the Baptist must have looked – a little scary on the outside, but utterly soft to the Lord on the inside. John was a man of the wilderness, much like Elijah. And like Elijah, he was a man devoted to the Lord. The Pharisees didn’t like the people going to John to seek God because he wasn’t one of them. He didn’t have the look or the “pedigree.” But John was in sync with the Lord in a way that the Pharisees couldn’t and wouldn’t ever understand.
Today, pray that the Lord will open your heart to everyone who loves Him, even if they look and seem a little (or even a lot) rough on the outside.
Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
