Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016

Isaiah 40:3-5

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 lifted up,
   and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
   and the rough places a plain. 
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
   and all people shall see it together,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ 

River life

I took a long drive in the country last week, across northern Illinois to a retreat house in southwest Wisconsin. Then I crossed the river to meet an old friend in Dubuque, Iowa, before turning north, up the Mississippi River, choosing country roads and county blacktops that kept me close to the water.

There were soaring eagles and families of deer. I dodged wild turkeys along gravel roads.

But I went to see the river and the great valley through which it winds, flowing ever southward as it has for centuries. It gives me hope. It speaks of a river that never runs dry, of the flow of life-giving waters emerging from a faraway source.

Seeing it bend and turn, even beneath the ice that covers much of its surface, moves me to pray. I give thanks for a River that never runs dry, for a Love that busts from an Eternal Source and flows through all time, a deep, life-giving stream that finds and fills me so that I may laugh again when all laughter has faded from my lips.

And in praying I find that Source is not far off but close and within, and once again Living Water flows through me, bringing tears of relief and hope.

The hills and valleys of living, the dry places and wilderness where we lose our track of our souls, these struggles fade. They no longer trouble me so much as the life of God, the Living Water, the Eternal Love from an ever-Boundless Source fills my heart and carries me in its current.

And I know: The glory of the Lord is the laughter and tears of those who find themselves in the River of Love that you are, Holy One.

I went out into the wilderness with a dry and angry heart. I went out to prepare your way. For I know … you will find me there.

Pr. David L. Miller