John the Baptist and the Road into Town

The book of Isaiah talks about the work of John...flattening the mountains, filling in the valleys, and eliminating curves.  I've heard choirs sing those phrases and pastors read those phrases for years.  "Every valley shall be..."  This year I understand them in a new way.

The government of Haiti is building the road that comes into our town.   Last January, it was a path about 20 feet wide with crazy turns, dips, and bumps.   They began work, widening the road first.  Then they started attacking the mountains...cutting right into them.  Huge low points were filled in.  (The other day my motorcycle taxi driver stopped at a point in the road.  I remembered he had family near a big dip in the road.  As he walked into the house, I had no idea we were there at that point in the road.  It's now level.)   This week the big trucks are back in our town making the widened road even wider.  The result is that you can see forever both east and west.  Towns that seemed far away, we can see now.  I get to the end of the lane where I live, and I look west to Flammands and east to Laborieux.  Amazing.  I can SEE.

In the passage after the valley being filled,  the mountain made low, and the rough ways smooth, there comes a fascinating word.  Isaiah wrote that when that 'construction' work is done, 'all mankind will SEE God's salvation.'    God's salvation is Christ.

When the turns and mountains and valleys are eliminated, you SEE further.  I want to live like John the Baptist...eliminating the obstacles that keep people from seeing Christ. 

Every time I see a dump truck or a bulldozer, I think of that now.   Every time I ride on a cycle out to the highway I SEE.   This Christmas season, may you SEE God's salvation!