12-7-2014

Good Morning All,

       Isaiah 40:3 “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

        “Help me, help me, grandpa, I’n stuck!”  We went outside to play in the snow.  There are snow piles pushed up in the back of the church in the trees.  So we put on boots, snow pants, hat, coat and mittens and out the door we went.  We would walk along and every so often he told me, “Watch out, grandpa, it’s slippy”.  We worked our way over to the hills but the snow was a little deeper there.  Soon as we were walking he would stop and declare that he was stuck.  The snow wasn’t even to the top of his shoes but he was stuck.

    After about the fourth time, Grandma decided that grandpa was supposed to plow a path so he wouldn’t get stuck.  So I shuffled to make paths so he wouldn’t get stuck.  For the most part, it worked.  He followed the paths and we went about our play.  There were only a couple of times when he veered off the path and was stuck.  As long as he stayed on the path that I prepared for him, everything went fine.

    Our life is a lot like that.  In our verse, this is a phrase that relates to what was called “the king’s highway”.  These were super highways.  They were wide and flat designed for speedy travel. They were designed to allow the king and his army to travel anywhere in the kingdom speedily.  Usually, if a commoner was on the road when the king was coming, he was either driven off or killed.  This was for the king and his emissaries.  Yet the people often took the chance because the travel was so much easier.

    This verse is quoted in the New Testament as a prophecy about John the Baptizer.  It is that but this phrase has more meaning to it as well.  When the path is made straight, when a highway for our God is made; we can rest assured that God makes it.  God made the road straight so that he could come easily to us.  The death of Jesus paid for the debt of our sin.  It cleansed us to stand before God.  We can stand in his holy presence we can travel on his highway.

    We can always go before God and we can do it quickly.  We can always call upon his name; at a moment’s notice, we can go to God.  If unplanned or unexpected events suddenly appear, we can, and should, always call upon his name.  We should always look to God for our comfort, our hope, our restoration; he is the source of our healing.  He gives us the love and the mercy that we need but do not deserve because often times; we get stuck by going off the path.

    God provides us the path but we often go awry.  Yet even when our own foolishness and sin causes us all sorts of pain and sorrow, God pulls us back onto his path, he gets us unstuck.  We don’t have to stay stuck in sin and pain.  God puts us on his path; we have to trust him that it is the best path.

Father of all grace, you build the highway that goes straight to you.  Lead us by your holy and loving arms to stay on your road.  Be with those who have strayed and are stuck.  Bring them back to your gracious family.  Place them safely on your road of salvation.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,                 

Pastor Bret