Third Sunday of Advent 2007

Sometimes I feel like getting my self on a mountaintop and proclaiming to the top of my voice, "Behold the wonder that is God." Mountaintop or not, however, we followers of the Christ ought to find ways in our living and in our being to proclaim the wonders of God.

Think about it. God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, comes up close and personal so much so that to capture it all Isaiah the prophet turned to metaphor and hyperbole to speak of what it means when God is present. In his telling of the story he uses phrases like, "the wilderness and the desert will be glad, and the desert will rejoice and blossom (Isaiah 35:1). He speaks this way to describe the difference God will make even in dry and barren places of life. There will be rejoicing and glory and streams of fresh flowing water in the desert. It will be a time when everything is stamped with grace and the glory of God will be seen and experienced everywhere.

In those days people will see "the majesty of our God," (Is. 35:2), and the good word to "the exhausted, the feeble and the anxious" will be, "Take courage, fear not" (Is. 35:3-4). The healing power of God will be present and the influence of God's love will spring up like pools of fresh water in the blistering heat of the desert.

A highway of the holiness of God will makes its way through the barren places and those who say YES to God will be invited to walk on that highway, and the blessings on that journey will be so great that Isaiah says the people, "will come with joyful shouting to Zion, with everlasting joy upon their heads" (Is. 35:10). People who walk on that highway, Isaiah says, "will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away" (Is. 35:10).

God has invited us to join up and be with Him. He is the difference out there in the heat of the day. It is His presence that makes all things new. The desert is still the desert but the desert is not God. God is God, and He is present to touch our lives and to draw us to Himself that in Him we might live.

Come to God, Isaiah says, "and "He will save you" (Is. 35:4). He will save you from anything that keeps you from hearing and receiving His take-courage-and-fear-not word.