Clear the Way by Ed McDowell

Clear the Way from Christmas to the Cross

There is a call to clear the way. It echoes through time.

“Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!”

Isaiah 40:3, NLT

The people of God have gone through some hard things in response to their rebellion and disobedience. God has brought discipline and punishment. A new time of God’s presence is coming.

“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over all her sins.”

Isaiah 40:1-2, NLT

Reflection

There is an invitation to be part of getting ready for God to draw near: 

“Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!”

Isaiah 40:3-5, NLT

Christmas celebrates God’s presence coming to be with us through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a season filled with thoughtful preparation, gifts, the gathering of family and friends, and special times of worship.

There is preparation for everything to be just right.

We are invited to build a beautiful and barrier-free highway for God to come. We are to remove obstacles and open up good sight lines for everyone. Get ready for God to come and be with us. We want everyone to know that God is coming.

Encouragement

Let Christmas be the highway of celebration where we remind everyone that God has come. He is with us.

There is another path we must be sure is barrier-free with clear access and sightlines. It is the path to the cross of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Keeping the path clear to the cross at Christmas opens up the best gift ever—forgiveness, a new way of living, transformation, and freedom, to name a few.

The most important gift is found in an authentic relationship with God.

Prayer

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for coming—God with us.

May our Christmas celebrations, with all of their preparations, be about a vast, beautiful, barrier-free highway for you. You are worthy.

May we also clear the way to your cross. This is your place of forgiveness and redemption for everyone. Please help us give everyone a clear view of the new life you are offering us.

Please help us clear the way from Christmastime to the cross.

In your name, Jesus, we pray,

Amen

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Ed McDowell is the CEO of Warm Beach Camp Ministries. He also coaches and consults in board leadership and development to bring fresh perspectives to perplexing situations. Ed authorizes a devotional series titled A Well-Planted Faith in an Uprooted Culture. His writing and speaking aim to challenge people to have God’s Word inform how they live. Ed and his wife, Bev, live on Camano Island, Washington, where they live out their mission statement: “To give our lives away for the cause of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.”

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