By Pastor Don Schatz

Prepared for You

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“See, I will send my Messenger who will prepare the way before me.”
Malachi 3:1a.  New International Version

Maybe 150 feet from the Visitor Center at Redwood National Park in Northern California, there is a bridge in the woods.  It spans a stream.  One walks across the bridge, from one awe-inspiring tree to others, and to the trail beyond.  I am grateful to those who built that bridge and trail.  And I am thankful for those who maintain them so that you and I may walk there among those beautiful trees–some of which were living at the time of Christ’s earthly ministry.

I walked that bridge, and the trail into the Redwoods, once again not long ago.  It felt like coming home.  There is a profound quiet in that forest.  There is a sense that the trees themselves could usher one into the holy presence of God.  He is the one, after all, who created them.  He is the one to whose glory and might those majestic trees give testimony.  Simply by being.

Long before I ever appeared there to walk that bridge and path, they were waiting for me.  Just so, long before I appeared upon the earth nearly 70 years ago, God knew me and loved me.  He knew you and loved you as well.  He prepared the Way, through Christ the Way, for us to return to walk the Way with him.  Thanks be to God!  

When I did appear, the Lord had already provided parents and others who would walk me to Jesus in the Scriptures.  The Holy Spirit was there to show me the bridge from sin to God across the outstretched arms of the Cross of Jesus, the Way.  How loving is our God!

Who were/are the ‘Way-preparers’ that God had/has in place for you?  For whom are you the ‘Way-preparer’?  The Bridge of your love and compassion is God’s creation in you, for the benefit of others.  Thank your ‘way-preparer’s’ today.  Rejoice that God should use you to prepare the Way to Jesus the Way for others.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado