“A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed…” (Isaiah 40:3-5)

In the Scripture readings today we hear the voice of Isaiah who foretold the coming of Jesus, our Messiah. During Advent we’re meant to peek inside our hearts and give God a chance to straighten and smooth what has become off-kilter and broken in our lives.

Often we let insidious negative voices drag us into valleys of fear, while mountains of pride impede what Jesus wants to do in our hearts.

God – our Creator and Heavenly Father – calls us each “BELOVED.” We are precious in His sight. God wants to fill our valleys of fear with hope and peace. God wants to mend our broken hearts with love, the healing kind that lasts forever. Our Heavenly Father wants to unkink what’s twisting us in knots with extra doses of divine grace.

God wants to make the crooked in us straight, to open up more room for Jesus. Are we like the Bethlehem innkeeper – are the rooms in the inns of our hearts so crowded with our baggage there’s no room for Jesus?  Or, will we let God open our hearts to the new things Christ wants to do in us?

“We need Advent to remember what’s what and what’s not. The “off-stage” voice of the One Who is to come is what will get things straight, will fill in the empty valleys and level our mountains of defensive fear. To allow this, we trust the call, the unusual, the new of Jesus’ coming. We need these Advent moments to check out our little heart-hands and see if there is any room in those hands for our receiving the new Surprise.”  Fr. Larry Gillick S.J.

grace, peace & hope-filled valleys

Virginia : )

Photos: Grand Canyon, Arizona