Friday, Second Week of Advent

On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry announces that the Lord is nigh; awake and hearken for he brings glad tidings of the King of kings! 

Then cleansed be every life from sin, make straight the way for God within, and let us all our hearts prepare for Christ to come and enter there.

We hail you as our Savior, Lord, our refuge and our great reward; without your grace we waste away like flowers that wither and decay. 

Stretch forth your hand, our health restore, and make us rise to fall no more; oh let your face upon us shine and fill with world with love divine. 

(from On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist Cry  ELW 249)

How do you prepare your rooms for a special guest?  What do you clear away?  What do you add?  Do you rearrange things?  Do you discard clutter or do you have a place where you hide it?  When guests to your home come are there places you would want to post an “off-limits” sign? 

Well, how is it going?  You still have time.  You don't need to cram everything into some "off-limits" space in your heart.  That is futile, anyway!  God already knows the hidden places where the "trash" of life has accumulated. 

We ask that God stretch forth the hand that restores health and that fills us with divine love.  That hand reaches out even now to each one of us.  Thanks be to God!