Following the Star

Pause

God has given each of us seasons of waiting and days of anticipation.

Despite the incessant rush of our lives and the world around us, there are still moments when things come to a halt, when all that we can do is done and we must wait. God invites us to wait faithfully, anticipating joyfully what is to come.

Take a moment now to wait faithfully with God.

Listen

A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 35:8-10

Think

A friend of mine once told me that the best way to learn your way around a new town was to get lost in it. Just start moving; see what you can see. Once you’ve been lost a few times, you begin to form a mental map that always points the way home. The strange and foreign become familiar.

Isaiah’s vision of the world made new has a similar flavor. Once we’re on the Holy Way, we will always know where home is. Even at our most foolish, we won’t be able to go astray because the strange and fearful places of our world will be made familiar and friendly. We may get lost a few times before we get there, but when the journey’s done, we’ll know the way home no matter how far afield we find ourselves. We’ll walk the road unafraid, traveling as if we’re already home.

Phillip Fackler

Pray

Patient God, continue to draw me ever closer to your holy highway so that wherever I walk in this world, I may know that I am at home in your presence. Amen.

Go

Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith for ever.

Psalm 146:5-6