Second Sunday of Advent

Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

When I was in my mid-twenties I took my first of many road trips out west. I can remember the breathtaking moment when I first saw the “Big Sky” of the west. There was a moment just after the highway crossed over the Mississippi River when suddenly the sky seemed to open up.
Now, the sky hadn’t really changed at all…
What had changed was the landscape. In that part of the country the land is completely flat and the highway is straight as an arrow. The lack of hills and valleys enables you to see approaching cloud and weather patterns hours before they affect your particular situation.




I think of that expansive vision as I contemplate the meaning of the prophetic counsel:

“Prepare the way of the Lord…(so) all flesh shall see the salvation of God”.

Perhaps my preoccupation with the terrain of my life … the “highs” and “lows” of every day existence…are obscuring my clear vision of the Lord’s magnificence. If I gaze beyond the ordinary details what do I see that is extraordinary? What is God’s big picture of this day?