Can you believe Christmas will soon be here? Thank you for taking time from your seasonal activities to join me here for another thought about this “Advent Adventure.”
Once I arrived in our jungle training camp, communication with family and friends became much more complicated. Fifty years ago, there was no Wi-Fi or email. A mule had to carry our letters out to a small airstrip, then the pilot ferried it over the mountains to the nearest town. Just when those planes would fly was unpredictable. They were at the mercy of the weather. A storm cloud could delay our mail for days or even a full week. Sometimes letters got lost in transit.
I wrote home regularly, and my mother saved all my letters. In November, I wrote, “It’s Sunday afternoon, and I have time to fit in a note here before hiking off to visit a nearby Tzeltal village. The plane came and left yesterday so I don’t know when this letter will get out. Thanks for all your letters and updated addresses for my mailing list. Alas! The addresses can’t be corrected for a while as I had to pre-address two batches of envelopes before we left Mexico City.”
When he left heaven and came to earth, did Jesus miss being able to communicate each day with his Father? Were some of his prayers lost or mislaid? Was there ever a delay in delivery? Not a single prayer went astray. Each day, Jesus “wrote” home. Mark 1:35 tells us, “Before daybreak, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.” And Luke 22:39 speaks of his daily habit of seeking time alone with God.
Why not set aside your holiday preparation and take an extra five minutes today to sit quietly in God’s presence? We too can know that our prayers fly to the Lord without delay.
