Malachi 3:1 – See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.

Isaiah 40:3-5 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. " (NIV)

"Fast before the feast!" my mother would say, as she put Christmas Eve supper on the table: codfish cakes, or her heavenly homemade baked beans. Both dishes I secretly preferred to turkey!

"Fast before the feast!" Prepare the way! Not just penitence. A call to lay low, rest up for the party! Nothing you could enjoy now could ever be as good as what's coming, so don't dull your senses. Don't take the edge off your appetite!

We need to learn again how to fast before the feast. To enjoy simple things, like fishcakes and baked beans. Like life itself. Then the celebration-times are even sweeter. Savoured as gifts, piled on top of what is already good and celebrated.

The coming of God that we remember, declare, and anticipate is not a coming to nothingness. We already live by the grace of God. God's gifts are with us. God has always been faithful.

The prophets and the baptizer didn't announce the coming of a God who had been absent. They declared a new revelation, a keeping of promises, a fullness of what had always been there for the open-eyed to see.

Prepare! Celebrate life now, and look forward to even more!

Prayer: Open my eyes to see all your gifts in the everyday of my life. Then help me wait to celebrate the overflow of your grace. Amen.

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