Advent is an intentional season of “preparedness.” We think of Advent as a “journey,” to use Oprah Winfrey’s favorite word. We think of Advent as a progressive path we take in order to arrive at a destination — the sleepy village of Bethlehem.
Preparing. Making plans. Charting a way. Scouting and scoping the landscape. Assessing and overcoming obstacles to avoid or override.
Sounds like life as usual. Sounds like something we can get our heads and hands and hearts around. Sounds like something we can get down and get done.
But wait a minute! Advent is NOT our journey. We are NOT in charge. Advent is not a journey WE make, a journey WE prepare for, a road that WE navigate.
No, Advent is the journey GOD makes. Advent isn’t a trip we prepare to go on. Advent is the time we prepare for God’s trip to us. Advent is the time we ready ourselves to RECEIVE God. The God who, against all reason and for our redemption, is making a journey TOWARDS us.
This week’s gospel text reminds us just how long God had been preparing for this journey. Before the baby Jesus was even born, God had arranged for the ideal advance man, the perfect prophet to be conceived and born and nurtured to adulthood – John the Baptist.
Generations before John the Baptist there were other prophets whom God provided with selected slices of insight, like a freeze-framed GPS map. Moses and Isaiah, Malachi and Daniel: all provided peeks at the pathway God was paving…
THE BEST WAY TO PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF JESUS IS NEVER TO FORGET THE PRESENCE OF GOD, THE PRESENCE OF JESUS!
In two weeks will YOU be ready to receive Jesus in YOUR heart and give Jesus the Gift he wants from YOU?
WHEN YOU FIX YOUR THOUGHTS ON JESUS, JESUS FIXES YOUR THOUGHTS!
