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“Making Ready”

November 27, 2022

Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44

I love trees… From the tallest, most majestic to the tiny saplings struggling to grow.

This time of year the color has mostly faded from the leaves that dressed the trees & made us oooh & ahhh.  This time of year there are more leaves on the ground than still on the tree branches.  Bare tree branches can seem so stark.  But they are a necessary part of the process.  THE PROCESS?  The Process of PREPARATION.

Preparation of the Season-to-Come.  Trees, like the rest of Creation (including you & me), are “Making Ready.”  Did you know that if there is a dead branch hanging on for dear life, it might be sapping (no pun intended) the very life of that particular tree so that the entire tree’s life is endangered in the cold & stark winter to come.  So the tree,

KNOWING this… (YES, there is an intelligence & a consciousness in trees as in ALL living things!) So the tree, KNOWING that this dead branch endangers the life of the entire tree, let’s the branch fall away.

Hmmm… The Process of PREPARATION of what is to come… An ADVENT, if you will.  Paul advises us all – including the trees, I believe – “You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.  For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers… Let us live honorably…” (Romans 13:11f)

So what is it in MY life – and YOURS – that we need to wake up & let go of?

What is it in MY life & YOUR life — that if we hang on to it, cling to it – like the dead branch clinging to the tree – IS – already, NOW & WILL —  in the days & weeks to come endangering OUR lives… ALL of our LIVES…  What is it that COMPROMISES our living our best, most honorable lives? 

Can we – WILL WE – let go of it — so that we will make ready during this Season of Preparation, this ADVENT… so that ALL LIFE may be transformed… into what? 

I’m going to go out on a limb (again, no pun intended) and say “So ALL LIFE can be transformed into the IMAGE & LIKENESS of the CHRIST of GOD.”

Pam Gregory+