Second Sunday of Advent
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.” – Mark 1:3
I don’t know about you, but
my ways have never been straight.
They are filled with sweeping curves
and jagged crossings and
they loop back on themselves to cover the same track
over and over and over.
My ways have stones in the road (some I put there).
They stall on hills and wind beside rivers
and run away from difficulty
in search of easy ways to nowhere. They are not straight.
This voice keeps saying — calling, rasping, demanding —
from my most private desert: “Make straight a highway…
Love is coming. You have
no need of short cuts to nowhere,
cul-de-sacs to hide in
secret trails to false security.”
Love is coming.
With unyielding force God’s voice makes straight its way,
as direct as a newborn’s first cry.
I don’t know about you, but I think
I have roadwork to do.
Andy Meckstroth, Moravian pastor serving Ziegels Lutheran Church
Breinigsville, Pennsylvania