And I’ve been thinking about what happens when God visits.

“…He has visited his people…” – Luke 1:68

What do you see in your mind when you imagine a visit from God? Is it a chaotic, apocalyptic event, like when a destructive monster figure shows up in the movies? Or, is it a quiet, unveiling scene with the camera slowly panning across a sleeping baby in a manger?

According to the scriptures, there are a couple things that seem to be clear when God visits.

1. Everything else changes

2. Everyone will see

Though God remains the same, everything else changes. In our third passage from last Sunday’s advent texts, Luke 3:1-6 tells us that God’s visitation means that every valley will be elevated and every mountain laid down, every crooked road will be made straight and every rough ground will be made smooth.

Is this a picture of God destroying his own creation? I don’t think so. It seems to be a picture of creation being transfigured for the sake of his arrival and because of his arrival.

All this happens so that we too can arrive. And in our arriving, have the ability to see.

1. Everything else changes.

Even our relationship to power:

Consider how the chapter begins.

¹In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, ² during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. – Luke 3:1-2

Notice how Luke names those in power and their respective places of significance. They all stand in contrast to the last man at the end of the list.

That name —of all names —was the only name who is given the word of God: John, the son of Zacharias.

And of all the places, only the wilderness was barren enough to receive that word.

Not only is John a contrast to earthly power and position, but he preaches a message that opposes their very politic.

Whatever you might think of those in power and how they either enhance or diminish your life, there is only one Lord who is worthy of allegiance. John’s call to repentance is a call to realign one’s allegiance to the Lord of lords.

Repentance is not about feeling sorry for our sins. (Besides, John announces the forgiveness of sins for goodness sake.) No, repentance is about turning away from the ways of life that capture our trust and allegiance. It’s pulling a 180° from the systems, structures and sentiments that we have assumed are essential and making a move toward the Savior who sets us free from those enslavements. It’s a turning away from the passing kingdoms of this world to be found in the eternal kingdom of heaven.

The visitation of God means everything changes.

Even our ideas of preparation:

Everything is upended, renewed and transfigured in the kingdom that John points to and by the King whose way he prepares.

John is able to prepare the way for God to visit because he himself has been prepared. In his own repentance, he is repositioned to know what we eventually come to realize — that even preparation is transfigured by the God who comes to visit.

God needs no preparation but we still participate. And our preparation of the way of the Lord is not carried out through position or privilege, but in a posture of poverty.

Jesus could follow the preparation of John, because John knew he wasn’t worthy to strap Jesus’ sandals.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The end (the goal) of all preparation of the way of Christ must lie precisely in perceiving that we ourselves can never prepare the way.”1

Only the Lord can truly prepare the Lord’s way. But the Lord of lords invites us to be the lords of his preparation. And eventually, all others will see that He has come to visit.

“…and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” – Luke 3:6

2. Everyone will see.

Not only does everything else change but everyone else sees.

The mountains have been brought down and the valleys are lifted up. The roads have become straight and smooth and now every person can see who is coming.

There are no obstacles to God’s visitation. Not even the dark.

No matter how far gone a person is, no matter how lost they have become, God’s light will shine to find them.

John’s father, Zacharias, made this promise about John’s preparation at the end of chapter one.

“And now you, little child will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you go forth before the presence of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people a knowledge of salvation in the forgiveness of their sins, through our God’s in most mercy, whereby a dawning from on high will visit us, to shine upon those sitting in darkness and death, shadow, so to guide our feet into the path of peace.” – Luke 1:76-79

No matter how dark things have gotten, you are not hidden from the Lord’s sight. God comes to visit his people as “the dawning from on high.”

When he arrives, his light will shine in all the dark places. There is no darkness at all in God, but God is absolutely found in the dark. This is how light shines. And when the dawning from on high appears, he will see us. And, in turn, all flesh will see the salvation of God.

When God visits everything else changes and every eye will see. But for now, at Advent, we wait and we hope. We wait like the prophet Isaiah who spoke these beautifully related words…

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.”

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”– Isaiah 40:1-5