JOY: How Will We Prepare?

Read: Luke 3:1-6

By Jessica Patchett

In those days, in those crazy days, when the world seemed to be in constant turmoil and people couldn’t figure out who was trying to save the day and who would pose the next threat ... in those painfully somber days when people couldn't take one more bad news story … the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

In those days, in those busy days, when religious hearts found hope in King Herod’s construction project at Temple Mount in Jerusalem and political minds searched for wisdom among decrees from Rome and Syria … the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah … in the wilderness.

They were days not unlike our days. Regional power players sparred in local insurrections; families caught in hotzones weighed the terror of violence at home against the fear of becoming migrants in foreign lands; and religious leaders scrambled to construct moral and ethical scaffolding around the deteriorating old world order.

They were unsettling days. As confusion and chaos clamored on at full volume, the word of God whispered in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight. Every valley be filled, every mountain and hill be made low; the crooked be made straight and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

The word of God, the salvation of God didn’t emerge from Jerusalem … or Rome … or the Temple … or a safe home or state-of-the-art hospital. The word of God was heard in the wilderness and born to a couple who became refugees trying to save their newborn son from being killed by a vengeful king.

Human beings saw the salvation of God born in a manger, in part, because of the selfless hospitality of a Palestinian innkeeper. Shepherds keeping their flocks by night saw the salvation of God, in part, because wise Eastern emissaries shifted their allegiances from a vengeful king to the prince of peace. We have seen the salvation of God grow in wisdom and stature, in part, because everyday Egyptians welcomed two young Jewish refugees who gave up everything to keep their child, God’s child, safe from harm.

A Palestinian innkeeper, Eastern wise men and dignitaries, Egyptian families, and Jewish refugees prepared the way for all flesh to see the salvation of God.

In these crazy, busy, unsettling, fearful days, I wonder, how will we do the same?