Preparing the Way for Peace

Are you experiencing peace in your life? Are you making any preparations for peace in your life? What would you be doing differently if you were preparing the way for God’s peace in your life? How would peace be ushered in by God as a result of preparing the way?

We often get what we plan, design, or prepare for. It has been said that “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.” It might also be said, “If we fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

When we seek God’s peace, we should also prepare ourselves for God’s peace.

In Luke’s Gospel account we see the beginning of the preparation for the peace we are longing for. Luke tells us, “The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” (Luke 3:2-6, ESV).

John the Baptist came in the spirit of Isaiah the Prophet, fulfilling God’s word through him to prepare the way for the coming messiah, the Prince of Peace, and the peace he would bring.

These instructions of preparation are still relevant to us today. We can prepare ourselves for God’s presence and peace. We can take away all the obstacles to God’s presence. We can remove anything that makes the path of God in our lives crooked. We can raise up the low places and remove any hurdles to our path to God, or to God’s clear path to us. We can straighten crooked ways. We can smooth out the rough ways and the rough edges in our life to see clearly the salvation of God.

May we prepare the way of God’s arrival and coming peace in our lives this Advent and always.

A Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent: “Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).

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