Preparation 12/08/19

Lake Fausse Pointe State Park, St. Martinville, Louisiana

Prepare the way for the LORD.  ~ Isaiah 40:3

The closest church is about ten miles away – as the crow flies.  But we’re not crows.  So it would take us 45-50 minutes to get to one that’s not Cajun Catholic.  I suppose we could visit one of those, but based on the conversations we’ve heard, and some of the people we’ve talked to, we’d be hard-pressed to understand much of the service.  We’re so steeped in Cajun culture here, they have their own words and dialect.  Kinda like French/English, but not quite.  And their accent is pretty heavy too.  So we were left with our own version of church.  A look into the Second Sunday of Advent from our devotional, our Daily Guidepost, discussion and prayer.  Really not much different than the other six days of the week.

Let’s talk about the Second Sunday of Advent.

This is the week to remind us to prepare.  Prepare for what?  Prepare for the coming of Jesus.  Prepare our hearts and minds to receive Him.  In our case, (“our” being post-Jesus-death-and-resurrection-indwelling-Holy Spirit-filled Christians), preparing to have our hearts and minds changed for today and opened to His love and leading.  And preparing for His Second Coming.

A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’

The following is a copy of our Daily Guideposts devotional from yesterday, written by Logan Eliasen.  It seemed appropriate for today, since we’re talking about preparation.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you. ~ Ephesians 1:18

   Constellations of snowflakes whipped past our family van as we drove toward the Christmas light display.  This was a yearly tradition, so I knew what we’d see.  A two-story Christmas tree decked with multicolor bulbs, Santa’s sleigh with double rows of reindeer.  A simple nativity scene.  Normally, I enjoyed our traditions.  But this Christmas, I wasn’t feeling it.  It had been a tough year.  I was halfway through law school, and the daily pressure was overwhelming.

   Before we reached the display, my dad pulled into a gas station to fill the tank.  While gas guzzled, he headed toward the complimentary window cleaner.  I wondered why.  The glass seemed fine to me.

   My dad sprayed cleaner on the window and ran the squeegee down.  The clean portion of glass was as clear as air, and the grime on the rest of the window was obvious: salt and dirt collected from months of driving.  He dipped the squeegee back into the nuclear-blue solution and finished the rest of the glass.

   My family could have seen the Christmas lights through the windows despite the collected debris.  But my dad wanted us to see clearly.  Uninhibited.  Just like another Father Who knows when my vision is clouded.  Who wants me to see Him fully, not through the crust that creeps onto the windshield of my life.

   I had become jaded, bogged down with the wear of everyday living.  But if there was a time of year to change the way I looked at things, it was the season celebrating the Almighty God becoming a vulnerable child.  My dad clicked his seat belt into place, and we drove off.  Ready to see a manger scene with unobstructed sight.

Jesus is the Word.  And the Word chose to come and dwell among us in order that we might be saved.  However, much to the contrary of the world’s view, He didn’t come for everyone.  He came for everyone who humbles themselves and believes and trust in Him.  He loves everyone.  He wants everyone to come to Him.  But we can be a stiff-necked people.  We tend to forget that everything we have and are and will ever be, is because He loves us and allows it. 

We need to prepare our hearts and minds to receive Him.  Not just during the four weeks before Christmas, but each and every day.

Believe it or not, we’ve run out of things to do around here.  But once again, it was a gorgeous day, so we set out to explore the bayou one last time, and we actually discovered a different path and saw some different scenery and did a lot of soaking up the sun, and peaceful quietness, and the beauty of God’s Creation.

Dinner tonight was burgers over an open fire.  Yum!  And in the spirit of the location, I made some baked Cajun fries.  I’ve made them before, because the recipe’s in my cookbook on the laptop, but I think it’s entirely possible that I typed it wrong, because they were Ragin’ Cajun fries!  The recipe calls for four potatoes and 3 T. Tabasco (among other spices).  I thought that sounded like a lot, plus I was only using three potatoes.  So I cut it down to just 1 ½ T. sauce.  They were still burnin’ hot!  So now I’m thinkin’ maybe it was supposed to be 3 t. instead.  We used a lot of ketchup tonight. . . .  😊