The first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time for yearning. It is also a time for cleansing. We are told that Isaiah prophesied that a voice would cry out in the wilderness asking us to make straight the path to our God (Is. 40:9). I have always thought of Advent as a desert time, a time of personal preparation: clean out the unkind thoughts and grudges, make ready the heart to welcome Divinity in with greater fullness.
But there is another type of desert I am called to. That is to walk with another. For we each have a desert sometime in our life, times when our efforts seem to produce little fruit, when life seems dry and barren, and success and happiness are little more than a mirage. Perhaps the Baptist's call to go into the desert is a cry for me to care for a fellow sojourner whose life has become difficult.
I can fill in the valleys and make every mountain and hill low when I help to balance that person's hope. I can help diminish some of that fear and build up some of that confidence. In short, I can give encouragement and understanding. If I do this, the sojourn in the desert may be shortened, and that person will come out a whole person, not one broken and defeated.
Who of us would not profit by a bit of understanding? Yes, I may act out my fears and anxiety. But if only one person sits by me, holds my hand and hears my story, I find heart and courage. In that courage I may even find healing and wholeness.
Isn't that what the Christmas story is all about? Is it not a story of hope in the midst of a very unfair world? So let me look for that sojourner in the desert, the one who feels weighed down right now and can use a caring heart. Let me reach out not with answers, but with a sympathetic ear that listens to their story. Who knows. That may be the one thing that individual needs at this time.
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