He who speaks to us in Advent…knows the wilderness into which we have wandered, and the wildness of the world we have on our hands.

It is precisely there we are to prepare the way of the Lord. Into the desert of this weary world we are thrust to transform and make it blossom and rejoice.

That is the call. He lays that task upon us. We avoid it at the peril of missing life’s most important appointment.

from Handel’s Messiah: A Devotional Commentary

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Gender-neutral version:

God who speaks to us in Advent…knows the wilderness into which we have wandered, and the wildness of the world we have on our hands.

It is precisely there we are to prepare the way of the Lord. Into the desert of this weary world we are thrust to transform and make it blossom and rejoice.

That is the call. God lays that task upon us. We avoid it at the peril of missing life’s most important appointment.

from Handel’s Messiah: A Devotional Commentary