Into your hands I com-mend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O Lord,
O God of truth. Psalm 31:3
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.
Make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.” Isaiah 40:3
Year after year I expect Advent to be sweet and gentle, like a fire on a winter’s night. And yet it always turns out to be amazingly Lent-ish ... It is, after all, a season of preparation, a purple season. So I shouldn’t be surprised when it turns out to a time of radical transformation and growth, though I always am. Which is part of the delight actually - I’m walking around, minding my own business (which is part of the problem, right?) making my own plans and yaddy yaddy when all of a sudden... Boom! Here comes Jesus. And not the sweet quiet Baby, but my old friend the Kick Ass Jesus who is uncompromising in His demands. My friend Carol says “God knows where to find you” and that turns out to be unequivocally true - especially when I don’t want to be found, exactly where I am not expecting to be found, and most especially when I want to be left alone to nurture my blindness, my disappointment or hurt or loss.....
It is right in these deserts, these wilderness places, that the voice demands that we prepare the way. Smack dab here the very middle of loss or grief or exhaustion or illness or disappointment. Don’t go somewhere else - to a church or a city or a civilized place away from here. Stay right here where you are. God will find you, even without Christmas lights...
