Prepare the Way

Christmas is coming! So I thought I’d write a few blogs about this most amazing celebration of our Lord’s coming. I’m reminded of a story.

I knew he was coming. In fact, we all did. Probably every living soul in that small town of Bedford, England (where we were living in the early 2000’s), knew that Nelson Mandela was passing through. We knew because we had a sign, well actually, it was more like a newspaper. For weeks before the great day, the front page of the local paper prepared us for the event.

The hour had come and the streets were packed. But even so, the town council didn’t take it for granted that everyone had heard of Nelson Mandela. The Mayor welcomed the South African hero with an introduction that helped all of us appreciate the magnitude and privilege of such an event. You could say, the mayor prepared the way.

God, through the prophets in the Old Testament, told us Jesus was coming, hundreds of years before he came. (I’ll show you a couple of these over the next two weeks.) But just in case we still didn’t comprehend the magnitude of the occasion, God sent John the Baptist. But what’s even better is that he also told us that he was sending John to prepare the way.

 Prophecies about Jesus are cool enough, but we’ve also got prophecies about people who would prophecy about Jesus. Don’t miss the significance here, God wanted you to appreciate the magnitude of the event, so in more than one way, he prepared the way – through both a person and a prophecy. Amazing.

This is John of who it is written, "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me” (Luke 7:24-27, Micah 3:1, ESV).

 Are you getting excited about Christmas yet? I hope so. It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus. It’s also a time to prepare your heart to receive more of him. I pray this blog over the next few weeks serve to prepare the way for a fresh encounter with Jesus.