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Seeing Salvation

Death Valley
  ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
    ...and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Does is sometimes feel to you like we're living in a wilderness? Not the hot, barren type like Death Valley.

More like the wilderness faced by the Delaware Valley Board of Education. 

At a recent Board Meeting a heated exchange took place between a Board member and an audience member accusing some school teachers of Gestapo-like tactics in enforcing mask-wearing. This provoked a response causing immediate adjournment of the meeting.

Or the wilderness faced by a Board member who resigned due to death threats against himself and his family.

This is a wilderness where violence seems to be the rule of the day. Here people wander in an injustice of scarcity, isolation, and hunger. 

It doesn't take much for any of us to ask, "God, are you at work in this wilderness?"

The wilderness place of vulnerability and danger is exactly where God is at work. Isaiah describes valleys filled, mountain and hills leveled, crooked roads straightened, and rough ways smoothed. 

Exodus says God guided Israel by a pillar of cloud by day, fire by night, and daily manna. The wilderness is how and where they learned to depend on God. 

When John the Baptizer says, "prepare the way of the Lord," he was reminding people to get ready because the Lord is coming. Prepare yourself. Change is going to happen. The world will be set right. 

Prepare yourself. You shall see the salvation of God.

God will break into our time, space, and history and transform this world from of scarcity, isolation, and hunger to one of abundance, community, and satisfaction.

God will transform violence into peace.

The Lord says, hold on to your hope. 

You shall see the salvation of God!!!

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