There are many words associated with Advent. ‘Prepare’ is one of them. It is more than a mere word, more than a suggestion or even command. It is invitation. In the Christian scriptures, you can read “Prepare the way of the Lord” in at least three of the gospels. It is an echo of the prophet Isaiah and Malachi taken up by these Jewish writers making connection between their past and their present as they try to make sense of their future. They are words that come out of the mouth of that wily one of the wilderness, John the Baptist, the one who is said to have called for those around him to get ready for all that God will soon be doing in the midst of their ordinary lives.

Prepare the way for what God will do. Now there’s an invitation that can turn even these darkest of December days upside down. Which is the point really. Advent preparation is so much more than hauling out the wreath,more than lighting the candles one by one each week. Advent preparation goes so much deeper than decking our houses and our yards with festive lights and ribbons in preparation for guests and parties. Advent preparation asks that we clean out not only our homes but also our hearts for what the Holy might be ready to bring to the nitty-gritty pathways of our lives.

Twenty five years ago this Advent, we were preparing for the birth of a child at our house. We did not know if this child was a boy child or a girl child. We were willing to live in the surprise. Because this child’s older brother had had a dramatic birth, we had scheduled the date of December 15 as the day of the baby’s arrival into the world. We had prepared the nursery. We had prepared the house for Christmas…..tree bought and decorated, check……cookies mostly made, check….presents purchased and, with the help of a friend, wrapped, check…..explanations made to older sibling about how life would change, check. Our nest was nearly ready, our paths had been made as straight as we could possibly imagine.

But this child, like most children, had a mind and a rhythm of its own and decided to arrive a week earlier on December 8th. Plans that had been unfolding according to our lists and to-dos got set aside for the movement of Life that began breaking into our midst. Calls were made. Preparations got shifted. Many things were left undone. And a baby was born. A boy baby, full of sweetness and light and showering love throughout the whole of our planning.

The preparation we are invited to make in these Advent days is not about the outer world of Christmas that culture dishes up. Instead, we are urged to prepare our inner world, for what God might be bringing to life within each of us. We are asked to make a path for the Sacred straight to our heart, a path that will bring light and justice and peace to a world that is in desperate need. This Emmanuel, God-With-Us has its own rhythm, its own movement and we are wise to prepare for it, pay attention to it.

Sometimes this in-breaking Advent path comes in the form of a tiny baby, full of innocence and promise and the power to transform homes and lives as it did that first Christmas two thousand years ago, as it did for us twenty-five years ago. The invitation is always the same: Prepare the Way for what God is bringing to birth…..and be ready for all the love and surprise that will bring.