When we take the opportunity to share with another person about what having a real and life directing faith in Jesus Christ means to us, what will we say? When the moment comes when God is depending on our voice to prepare the way for another person to come closer to God, will our voice be heard and what will we say? Will we share what is important or slide by with peripheral talk?
What a message for us at Advent, “Let every heart prepare him room.”
There are mountains that need to come down- mountains of racism, abuse, neglect, immorality, violence, sexism, ageism, that block our way to a healthy relationship with one another and with our Lord.
There are valleys to be filled, valleys of depression, despair, loneliness, grief, pain, any of which can keep us from the rich relationship the Savior offers and that keep us from enjoying the fellowship of the faith.
There are crooked places to be made straight. Yes, there is perversity, even among those we might never imagine.
There are rough places to be made smooth, rough places that have come because of oppression and injustice.
There is work to do! God needs voices to speak for Him in the wilderness in which we live. We are needy people living in a world of other needy people, people who need encouragement, people who need direction, people who need to hear from others about a faith that stays with them through really hard times, a faith that makes a difference. Here is God’s method. Here is His way of working among us. And so, a voice no one had heard before God began to use for His purposes. Will God use your voice?
Title: John the Baptist in the Wilderness; Date: ca. 1490-1495; Artist: Geertgen tot Sint Jans (c. 1460-1495); Building: Gemäldegalerie; Object/Function: Painting, panel; City/Town: Berlin; Country: Germany; Scripture: Luke 3:1-6. Notes: The artist, Geertgen, captures John the Baptist before, perhaps just before, the Word of God reveals itself to him. We are reminded that even those specially chosen often must wait, preparing themselves with the discipline of patience. And yet, as the Lamb of God’s presence suggests, we are never alone in our preparation. Permalink: https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56033. (Use this link to refer back to this image.)
