12-9-16 - Hitting the Highway

We are on a journey in this life – that’s a truth, if trite. We are ever on the move away from or toward home. Isaiah, in his prophecy about the return of Israel’s exiles to their homeland in Jerusalem, writes of a royal highway on which you cannot get lost:

"A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God's people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray."

For a people separated from their homeland, these were words of deep promise and hope – 

"Say to those who are of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.'" 

In the world right now an unprecedented number of people are exiled from their homelands. Even if this is not our literal experience, each of has some areas in which we feel far from what we want, or who we love, or from the kind of peace and wholeness we crave. That highway is there for us too – and it leads to healing.

"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy."

In the season of Advent we are invited to get in touch with what it is we yearn for; what – or who – we are waiting for. What is that for you? 

How do you fill in the blank, “When I have….,” or “when I am…, then I’ll be okay?” 

Where do you want to get that you are not already?

The Good News is that this highway is already accessible to us, to bring us closer to our own hearts, and to the heart of the God who awaits us at the end of every road we travel.
It is a highway for those who have been redeemed, set free, by the love of Jesus Christ for humankind. And it sounds like a mighty fun road, with joy and laughter –

"And the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing;
  and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

What we celebrate in this season, what we anticipate, is that day when sorrow and sighing are gone for good. Even now we glimpse that day in moments, in bursts – it is coming; it is here; it is ahead on that royal road, that highway to heaven, right here on earth.