Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth
Isaiah 40:3-4, Luke 3:4b-5

Guest preacher Rev. Emma Brewer-Wallin began her sermon on protecting our environment
with John the Baptizer’s call to repentance and forgiveness.

As I listened to these well-known verses from 2nd Isaiah, my mind flashed to gravel pits and heavy equipment tearing into hillsides for material to fill low spots for construction. No! No! No!
That’s not how to interpret this passage!

We need to transport ourselves back to the time when the Babylonian captivity was coming
to an end, a time when imagination still had God walking on the earth. Since the principal method
of transportation was one’s own legs and feet, this poetry was a call to straightening out the mixed-
up parts of our lives to make it easier for God to reach us – and for us to reach God.

May we see these words as a challenge to make God’s world a better, brighter place.

Lyn Pickhover, Challenged