A high road. A low road.
October 15, 2010 (Friday)
The Hoover Dam and I have something in common. I was born during the year in which construction on the dam began: 1931. So much concrete was poured into the dam that it has not yet completely cured, 79 years later. As the years went by, and traffic on the highways increased, cars moving across the dam have created a traffic bottleneck, so a new bridge, not far from the dam has been constructed. The only bridge in the world that is taller than the new bridge is the Royal Gorge Bridge. The new bridge is way up there, and is an engineering marvel. Non-tourists who want to get on down the road will now save a lot of time as they travel the new route that takes them over the bridge instead of the dam.
All across this great land of ours there are highways and bridges. In some places the hills and mountains have been cut away to make the roads across the mountains more nearly level. Sometimes the road is in a tunnel right through the mountains. (Incidentally, a 33-mile tunnel is being built under the Swiss Alps. When completed in 2017, construction will have taken 23 years.)
This procedure of leveling the roadways has been around a long time. Long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.'” (Isaiah 40:3).
Many years later John the Baptist came to prepare the people for the Messiah’s appearance. He is described in Mark 1:3 as “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'” John leveled the ground for the Lord Jesus. When Christ came preaching the gospel of the kingdom, the people were ready for his message, because John had prepared the way.
Everything we do is easier than it might have been because of those who went before us, preparing the way. When we count our blessings, let’s not forget to thank God for all those who have endured hardships and worked hard to prepare the way for us.