Wild

Today’s #AdventWord is #Wild

In Isaiah’s world, the King’s Highway ran through the Judean wilderness, connecting Egypt and Babylon, the Great Pyramids and the Hanging Walls, the past exodus out of slavery and the hope of a future return from exile. The prophet borrowed the well-worn image to call the people to get ready for God on the move. Four centuries later, John the Baptiser took up Isaiah’s words, with the added irony that he lived in a world paved-over by Roman armies bringing the Pax Romana. God has always been encountered on the wilderness road; but for centuries now we have been at work to level the land, to tarmac over the wild places, to obliterate them with our superhighways of politico-economic salvation. If we are to prepare the way for the Lord in our day, we might need to begin with digging-up our old familiar routes before we can rebuild.