The landscapes that we drove through astounded us with a beauty and majesty that widened our gaze and dilated the pupils of our imaginations.
But of course, you know this if you’ve been out west and seen the blockbuster natural features of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. The horizons are hard to comprehend. The geographical features look like something out of a Tolkien novel. The sun, although tempered by the cooler temperatures, is brutal and unyielding.
The journey that we took was so spectacular that the drive itself felt like a game of prediction.
“What do you think we’ll see on the other side of this hill?”
“What will the vista look like after we’ve crested this next rise?”
“More of the same,” someone would offer. “Fewer mountains and more desert scrub brush,” another would say.
“Nope,” said someone from the back seat, “I think we’ll see more red rocks as we did in that canyon some miles back.”
More often than not, each turn in the road and each arrival at a mountain pass would provide something new…something different to see.
We were rarely disappointed by what came next.
The Season of Advent invites us to lean forward to see what’s on the horizon. According to the prophets of old, we have reason to be optimistic about what we will see.
For ancient Israel, the future looked bleak. Corrupt leaders, the depravity of human nature, and the cruelty of life’s realities all conspired to provide a bleak and desolate landscape for God’s chosen people.
“Choose someone else,” God’s people would mutter, thinking that they had gotten more than their share of difficulty and misfortune.
The trusted proclaimers of the one true God, however, offered good news of great joy! “Light will brighten the dark horizon,” these prophets announced. “God has not deserted us. A Messiah, God’s anointed, will arrive and inaugurate a new day,” they would say.
We call this hope. That is, the assurance that things will be different, that things will get better. Our Creator God will provide for us and save us from ourselves and the darkness that eclipses our best intentions.
At Advent, we are reminded that God’s love for us in the person of Jesus gives us reason to be excited about the future and to anticipate that all is not lost. No, the road beyond the bend doesn’t always look like what we might expect or even wish. But truly, regardless of what we must drive through to get there, the horizon is bright for those who trust and hope in the Lord.
While tempting, we do not have to settle for an eternity of dread. Our current reality--our present location on the road--is not our forever home. The way ahead is joy-filled because we belong to a God who has not abandoned us but will instead finish what He has started.
And what he has begun in us, through Christ Jesus, is good.
But don’t take my word for it. Look up ahead beyond the dashboard at the road before you and see it for yourself.
The view is worth the effort.