Wednesday, December 11, 2008

Today’s text

John 1:6-8

This was the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?' He declared, he did not deny but declared, 'I am not the Christ.' So they asked, 'Then are you Elijah?' He replied, 'I am not.' 'Are you the Prophet?' He answered, 'No.' So they said to him, 'Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?' So he said, 'I am, as Isaiah prophesied: A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord. Make his paths straight!'

Reflection

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come and don’t delay. I am not ready, but don’t let that stop you.

I need time to prepare to receive you. I need silence. I need much less activity than the breathless pace recent days has required.

I need to stare into a candle and listen to music whose very sound pleads for your presence. Then I will know my own longing and offer it to you as fitting prayer. Then I will be ready.

Preparing is not about purity but praying our need. Your love abides even when we live far from awareness of who we are and what we need. You were born into our world never again to be dislodged from your abiding.

I do not need to pray for you to come, for you are the God who comes in every moment of every place with a love that overwhelms and consoles, heals hearts and makes whole.

Yet, I pray for you to come. I suppose my prayer is really that I may enter the love that comes in every moment.

So keep coming, Lord Jesus. Come and greet me when I least expect it, when I am busy and on the run, when I am uncertain and don’t know what to say, when I am unprepared and feel insecure and inadequate, when I am angry and unforgiving, when there just isn’t enough time, when I am feeling my frailty and the demands are too much for me.

Come and don’t delay. I need you more than I can say.

Come Lord Jesus, even as you come to me in these poor words.

Pr. David L. Miller