Preparing the way of the Lord is not too different from preparing our house for the holidays. Every mountain of newspapers on the kitchen table is made low. And every valley caused by an absence of bottles in our wine rack is filled. Every crooked picture hanging in our living room is made straight, and every leaf scattered across our smooth sidewalk is swept away. Let nothing get in the way of our holiday message: Family, friends and visitors are welcome! You are valued, you are appreciated, you are esteemed, cherished and loved! Let our hearts say it, let our home say it, let all that has breath say it!

John the Baptist was, of course, talking about a much more wholesale house cleaning, and a much wider welcome than my wife and I could ever extend. John was talking about the realigning of our priorities, the straightening out of our lifestyles, and the shaping up of our souls. His message resonated with the masses that were living under a religious hierarchy that failed to help them draw near to God, and was, in fact, hindering them from doing so.

Our lives, like our kitchen tables, are magnets for clutter. Somehow a myriad of distractions, diversions and temptations routinely untidy our lives.
That’s why we need times like Advent to do something about it.

You may remember an important book published in the 1980’s, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (OK, maybe you don’t). But it was written by a mathematical physicist and mathematical astronomer with no particular religious ax to grind. They proposed that the incredible mathematics that makes possible the development of the universe and intelligent life on earth simply could not happen by chance. They contended that the universe has far more complexity, and far more order, than chance or luck can rationally explain. They reminded us that all that surrounds us, the order and the seeming disorder, very likely has Someone at the helm.

How often does life’s clutter, rooted in the chaotic, disorganized and frenzied that contends that all of life is random and our lives have no eternal consequence – how often does this clutter keep us from remembering that truth: everything happens for a reason? We are significant. We have worth. We were created for a purpose. This is the message John the Baptist was preparing the way for all the world to hear. In what ways do we need to re-discover this? How might Advent be a time to embrace this anew? Knowing this, how might our outlook on the week ahead change?


Reading
Healing and Christianity – Morton Kelsey
Giving to God – Mark Allan Powell
Transforming Scripture – Frank Wade