“Comfort, comfort my people,” says the
Lord. Isaiah tells us that a voice cries
out to us, telling us to prepare the way for the Lord in the wilderness, to
make straight a highway for the Lord in the desert. We just heard this passage from Isaiah last
Sunday, but we hear it today as well.
The prophecy of a voice crying out in the desert is fulfilled in John
the Baptist, who literally comes out of the desert to proclaim Jesus’ presence
to the world.
Perhaps we feel like we are traveling through
the desert in our lives at this very moment, struggling with our faith,
struggling to incorporate God into our daily lives, wondering where God’s
presence is in the midst of the chaos and violence of our modern world. Yet, this voice is indeed crying out to us,
telling us to take a moment out of our busy lives to recognize God’s presence. God is indeed there, but perhaps we don’t see
him in the midst of everything else that is going on in our lives. We need to remember that Isaiah brought his
message of comfort to Israel when many of them were in exile in Babylon, when
their beloved Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. “Comfort” does not seem like a message that
you would here crying out in the middle of all this despair and
destruction. But we can find God in the
pain and struggle in our lives, especially in that pain and struggle. No matter what is going on in our lives, let
us prepare a path for him.
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