Prepare the way
Day 328, Saturday, July 5
Isaiah Chapters 38 – 40
A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places plain.”
It happened that I was living in Dallas when that city hosted the 1984 Republican National Convention, and I got a glimpse of what this verse is all about.
The image of preparing the way of the Lord was based on the image of the great victory parades of emperors: roads would be cleared and repaired so that nothing distracted from the glory of the leader.
Preparing for the 1984 convention, of course, Dallas was like any other city hosting such an event: determined to look good.
Unlike other cities, though, it knew it had a tragic history to live down. After another presidential motorcade in Dallas had ended in assassination, the city was determined that nothing could go wrong.
For months ahead of the convention there was road construction and repaving in the areas where convention-goers and guests would be. There was landscaping work along roads and freeways. All in all, the whole downtown area got a facelift.
This was the kind of preparation Isaiah envisioned us doing for the coming of God, our king.
But preparing for God’s arrival isn’t about fresh asphalt and washing concrete. It’s about cleansing hearts and renewing our souls.
What preparation do you have to do to get ready for God’s arrival?
Saturday meditation
Job 2:11-13
When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
Prayer focus
Prepare our hearts for God’s arrival.
-Rev. Mark Fleming