Get ready
by Sonia Hulme
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‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him’ (Matthew 3:3).
If you’ve seen the 1970’s musical Godspell, it’s hard not to read this verse without the words of one of its most memorable songs echoing around in your head. It’s not a difficult song to remember, consisting as it does of just one line repeated over and over: ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord; prepare ye the way of the Lord; prepare ye the way of the Lord’ … You get the idea. Matthew quotes this passage from Isaiah and applies it to John the Baptist, whose ministry, though compelling in itself, would prepare the way for ‘someone more powerful’ – Jesus, the Messiah.
This passage is often used in the context of Advent, as we prepare once again to welcome Jesus as a baby in the manger. But Christmas has come and gone. Now, we are in the first month of a new year. It is a time to look forward to what’s ahead. The trouble is, so many of us are still struggling to come to terms with the year we’ve just left. Fires at the start of last year were followed soon after by news of a strange new virus. Lockdowns, isolation, quarantine and social distancing became part of our everyday vocabulary. Lives and jobs were and continue to be lost. As I write, nearly every news article playing on the TV in the background is still concerned with this all-consuming virus.
What does preparation for our Saviour look like on the back of that? How do we make way for him in our lives this year? Perhaps it begins by acknowledging where we’re at. I don’t know about you, but when I visit someone, I’m never quite as comfortable in a magazine-perfect house as I am in one that looks a bit ‘lived in’. Because it’s real. Maybe God is like that. Perhaps we don’t need to present him with a perfectly prepared heart and life. He’s quite comfortable slipping into our mess and beginning where we are. The ’ordinary stuff’ of our everyday life is the perfect place for the Saviour to come alongside us and feel at home.
Lord, my preparations are not perfect, and despite my best efforts, my paths will never be perfectly straight. But I welcome you into what I have and who I am, your dearly loved and forgiven child. Thank you for making yourself at home in our world, and with me.
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