AS we begin the second week of Advent, I invite you to think about all the people you have encountered in your life. Go back as far as you can remember up to the present day. Let all of those faces and names roll through your memory and through your heart.
Some of them we carry with us all of our life. We meet them and form lasting relationships, even friendships. My father has a gentlemen that he met in the army that he calls at least three times a year in order to keep in touch. He has done this for 50 years.
Some of them we just know their faces. The encounter was so brief that we don't even remember their names or ever knew their names. Some are only for a period of time. We have those who were their in high school, those during college, those who we know through work, some through our community involvement and the like.
Some of these folks have made our life better. In fact, we could say having them in our life has made our life a lot easier. We enjoy being around them. We thank the Good Lord for them. My uncle is one of those persons in my life. I always enjoyed when he would visit as a child. He had a way of bringing a little more peace and joy to the place he entered. He also had a way of distracting our father just enough to where we wouldn't have to worry about orders or chores or other work around the house. He made my life better and certainly a lot easier.
Some of the folks we encounter, well are of a different sort. They make our life worse, more difficult and sometimes impossible. They are negative all the time. Every time you turn around they complain about this or that. These are the people that grate on you and even irritate you. Perhaps you have found yourself praying against them, asking God to eliminate them from your life.
Maybe you just wanted them gone or even dead, anything to get peace.
Think about all of those people, those who made your life better or worse, those who are still present and those who have faded away. Hold them in your heart and mind for a moment.
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when I was young, one of the treats i enjoyed was spending time with my cousin. Often times when visiting our grandparents, we would convince our dad to let us stay over night at his house or even stay for the week. It was always enjoyable. He was an only child and spoiled. I was one of ten and not so spoiled. He had all the cool toys and latest gadgets.
When i would visit, my cousin and I would find ourselves gathering rocks of all shapes and sizes. We would spend have a morning roaming the country side looking for rocks.
We would then gather ourselves in his bedroom where we would have rocks scattered all over the floor. He would reach under his bed and pull out this machine, it was like a miniature wash machine. We would put handful of rocks in there with a little liquid and turn it on. The machine would make noise and turn and shake and after a while, all those rocks would come out just as smooth as believable.
The Rock tumbler was an amazing machine.
All the rocks of all shapes and sizes would eventually be made smooth; no jagged edges just smoothness.
Sometimes, i feel life is like that machine that tumbler. God has placed all of these personalities and temperaments in our life. All of us are pulled and pushed together with all of or jagged edges. Our encounters with each other however long or breve create that spinning and tumbling effect where we bounce off one another.
All of this is part of God's plan. This is how we fulfill what John the baptist cries out, "make the crooked straight and the rough smooth.
God does this with the people around us. All of us rubbing up against one another creates that smoothness, slowly wears away the edges, the jagged reality of our personalities. This is how God completes the good work he has begun in us.
Just as in the gospel the word of God comes to John, a straggly figure, so the word of GOd comes to us each day through those people around us, and the rough ways have an opportunity to be made straight.
THere is no reason to be resentful, bitter or caught up in hate. There is only a reason to be grateful that God loves us enough to put those people in our life, good and not so good, kind and unkind, generous and stingy so that our roughness could be made smooth.
This is how we prepare for the coming of the Lord.
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