Anticipation

This is almost my favorite time of year.  Some change is coming.  There is something electric moving through the air and my senses start to tingle with alertness.  Can you feel it?

For weeks, the southeast states have been hidden from the rain.  The sun has scorched the sky and cracked the ground.  The air just sits down, heavy and thick, barely moving.  The grass grows so slowly the lawn mower is forgotten.  Forecasted thundershowers are empty promises; no water ever reaches the ground.  The taunting dark clouds only add to the insult and it seems nothing will change.   The long days of fun and play seem to stagnate into the dog days of summer and it feels like the earth is stuck in the dry landscape of a post-apocalyptic movie.

Then, very suddenly, something is different.  It starts with the usual threat of an afternoon thundershower but the rain actually starts to fall.  Water colder than you expect.  The rain comes and goes for two days.  Sometimes it is heavy but mostly it is just a light mist cooling the air.  A breeze begins to form and riding on the wind is the whisper of a promise almost forgotten.  The sun refuses to wake with the alarm clock.

It is about this time every year that I announce to my wife, “winter is on the way”.  At this point, she looks at me disgustingly and says that I have lost my ever-loving mind.  Maybe I get this response because it is the end of August and she has just come in from running in the still 90-degree heat.  I am reminded that we still have two months of summer AND we live in Alabama!  We are a long way from winter!  I’m not saying we’re there, just that the tide has turned and the change is tangible.

The first century in Israel was difficult time.  Roman rule had come to Judea with the intention of bringing peace and civilization to the world.  The Romans did not understand the worship of only one God but they didn’t necessarily seek to stop the Jewish religious practices.  But by this time, the religious system in Israel had been corrupted by years of foreign occupation.  God’s chosen people lived the heat of the world’s evil – they were constantly trying to insulate themselves from immorality.  The situation became even worse when King Herod tried to work a compromise.  It seems he wanted to serve both Yahweh and Rome (God and man).  For more than 500 years, Israel was ruled by a foreign superpower.  It had been a long summer and the Jews could not wait for the season to change.

Enter John the Baptist.  He was a very different person.  He wore odd clothes, ate very strange things, and brought a message that was stranger still.  There was a change coming and he knew it.  God’s message came to John son of Zachariah while he was living in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight the paths for him’ (Isaiah 40:3).  John was ready to act.  Since before his birth, John had been set aside to anticipate this new work from the Lord.  The people of Israel could feel it too.  They went in to the desert looking for the voice shouting in the wilderness.  They asked, ‘What should we do?’  Repent!  Be baptized with water so that Christ might be revealed to you.  Be ready for his coming!

We are in a suffocating climate once again but change is coming.  Jesus is preparing a place for all who will follow him.  Do you have an expectant posture?  Will you be ready for the glory revealed when it comes?  The wind has freshened and the weather is about to break.  A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising up from the sea (1 Kings 18:44).  A promise from long ago is unfolding before us.  Can you feel it?