Luke 3:1-6
“Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall be made straight, the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh will see the salvation of God.”
There’s a lake in California called Lake Manly. There isn’t much fishing happening there. It’s not very often that there are any water sports going on there either. No one has a cabin there. It’s a quiet place. Lake Manly is somewhat off the beaten path.
Lake Manly is at one of the lowest parts of the lowest, driest valley in North America. It’s in Death Valley! Almost 100% of the time it’s a lake without water.
But every once in a while, something amazing happens in that driest of places. Rainstorms can come through and dump so much moisture that Lake Manly begins to appear once again. It seems to me it would be kind of a ghostly thing, to just see this prehistoric lake begin to take shape where before, it had been just cracked earth.
This is what happened to Death Valley in August of 2004. The amount of rainfall for that area was just incredible. In fact, roads were washed out by the floodwaters, and rivers and streams appeared, all of a sudden. People described it as a hundered-year flood.
I suppose that’s a good enough story by itself. It shows the power that something like water has, especially in the desert. It’s no small thing for Lake Manly to suddenly appear. In no time at all the lake is about two feet deep and one hundred square miles.
There are people who wait for this strange thing to happen so they can zip on over to Death Valley with a kayak on top of their cars. That way they can get a shoulder patch that says, “I kayaked Death Valley.” I guess it’s a highly coveted prize.
But the best part of this story is what happened the next spring. For those who were able to get there in the spring, despite the collapsed roads, there was a reward that was unlike anything they had ever seen.
All that moisture had released the energy that had been dormant in thousands and thousands of wildflower seeds. Names like: Yellow Desert Gold. Desert five-spot. Desert Lupin. Those seeds had waited and waited for such an opportunity as this, as if they had been going through their own season of Advent, and when the conditions were just right, with temperature, moisture and sunlight, there was another flood in Death Valley. But This time it was a flood of life!
It was a modern interpretation of those ancient verses from scripture. Every valley shall be filled. And, the rough ways shall be made smooth. Every crack in the valley floor had been filled. Every sharp rock had been masqueraded by a garment of soft yellows, silky purples and downy pinks. It would have been quite an experience to see it! No florist would have been able to reproduce that bouquet. No painter would have been able to come close to that work of art.
To whom does the Word of God come? It comes to a man living out in the Death Valley of that place and time. It comes to a man who prefers to be alone, judging from his choice of what he calls home. God’s Word comes not to people who have made it to the top of the heap, not to the emperor living in a comfortable palace, not even to the head of the church doing his duty in the temple, but to someone who is on the edges, on the margins, outside the mainstream of life, in the dry places.
The Word of God came to John. His part was to prepare the way for salvation, to smooth out the way for Jesus to come, to soften our hearts so that we could accept, and then, believe.
And he preached about repentance. About saying to God and to those around us, “you know, I just keep screwing up. I don’t trust God’s promises, mostly because like the rest of my life, I gotta see it to believe it. I keep on breaking my own promises and not living up to my own expectations of myself. And if you knew what I think and feel in the darkest reaches of myself, you would rather not even know me. I am sorry.” This is the kind of repentance that John was trying to tease out of the people. This is the smoothing and the straightening of the way. This is the lifting up of the valleys, and the lowering of the mountains and hills. Repentance in front of the face of God is the way to make a way for Christ to come in. Are you up for it? How about you? Are you ready for your dry, cracked valley floor to be drowned?
So what do you expect happens when God comes into your life? Can you expect there to be a hundred year bloom? Can you expect your rough edges to be smoothed by God, who cares for you? Can you expect to once again have joy in living, like those kayakers in Death Valley?
Well, God’s Word is washing over you today, rushing at you and filling you and touching and awakening dry, wrinkled seeds of new life that were always meant to bloom and glorify not yourself, but your creator!
I tell you what, it is likely that God has a surprise, a good surprise, in store for you. Repent, dear people of God. Point out the obvious inside you, in your own Death Valley. The rainstorm is coming. He has a name. Jesus. A baby, born to bring life back to the world, starting with you!
