Listen

This is just as it was written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

A voice crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way for the Lord;
make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be leveled. The crooked will be made straight and the rough places made smooth. All humanity will see God’s salvation.”

Luke 3:4-6

Think

Words like wilderness, crooked, and rough are not words we typically go to the Bible to read or hear. They are words that conjure thoughts of strife, hardship, frustration, and more. But these words come in the midst of the story of John the Baptist who has come from the wilderness. He was rough in every possible way, yet he came to prepare the way for Christ. Maybe his roughness helps us identify that all of us have some work to do. We can all search within ourselves to make our path less crooked, more level, and smoother, because we ourselves are “crying out in the wilderness”

What does your wilderness look and feel like? Where could your path use some straightening or leveling? How can you ask for help from God? How can you ask for help from others in the midst of it all?

Amy Kim Kyremes-Parks

Pray

God of lonely places, it is easy to relate to the wilderness. Help me to remember your presence in the midst of my struggle. Amen.

Go

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.

from “Breath of Heaven” by Amy Grant & Chris Eaton (1992)