There’s an old saying that if you want to hear God laugh, just tell him your plans for the day. And we know how true that is, don’t we? How many times have we had a plan for the day, only to have it derailed by whatever circumstances come our way during the day. But I think the real problem with our plans sometimes is that we don’t always factor God’s will into our plans. We want God to come to our rescue when things go awry, as they always do when we depend only on ourselves. But if things are going well, we sometimes feel like we can do without God’s direction, thanks anyway.
This is the meaning of the song they’re singing about Judah in today’s first reading from Isaiah. The people who are in lofty high places don’t think they need God, or don’t even give God a second, or even a first, thought. And won’t they be surprised when God allows them to be caught up in their own folly and go tumbling to the ground?
This Advent time is a time for us to examine our lives and see if we might have thought ourselves to be lofty recently. How much do we depend on God? Do we rely on his help day after day? Do we consider his will in our daily plans? Are we open to the movement of his Spirit? If not, we might find ourselves tumbling and falling. But if we choose to be aware of God and our need for him, nothing will ever make us stumble. As the Psalmist sings today:
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
And so we forge onward in Advent, aware of the coming of Christ, building our houses on his rock-solid foundation.
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