“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
And they shall name him Emmanuel.”
Matthew 1:23a

There is a play which goes on in our car nearly every time Nancy and I take a trip together, and when the radio is playing it becomes a musical. Though unnamed many of you have seen it, heck, many of you have starred in it . . . and here is how it begins with us:

I take my place behind the wheel and Nancy is seated on the passenger side. I love to drive . . . and watch the scenery. Nancy loves to watch the scenery . . . and from the passenger seat often has to help me drive. You know this play: there is just so much to take in of this world: farmland; animals; tillage practices; equipment; well, you get the idea, and I just really hate to miss any of it . . . so I look around at everything . . . and Nancy’s role in the play is to keep me on the road, “Watch out for that car!”, “The road is curving ahead.”, “Do you see the kids playing near the road?” and so the lines play themselves out on the two of us for nearly the entirety of the trip until we reach our destination, Nancy exhausted . . . and me, well . . . let’s just say I am the antagonist in the play and I perform my role extremely well. Enough said!

What does this have to do with preparing to receive the Son of God?  It has everything to do with the first word of the prophet, Isaiah, the seventh chapter, verse fourteen, quoted here in the first chapter, the twenty-third verse of Matthew: “Look . . .”

We are about to enter a new Church Year as we enter the season of Advent, the season of preparation and anticipation of the coming of God’s salvation. “Look . . .” is so easy a thing to say and such a hopeful word for the finger-pointing prophet to use; “Look . . .” is an admonition to narrow our field of vision and concentrate on one particular thing; and, “Look . . .” is the voiced expectation that, indeed, we are listening and are willing to do what is necessary to see what God wants us to see: Emmanuel . . . God With Us. Are you watching the road? Do you see that oncoming car? Do you see the child lying in a manger? “Look . . .” or you will miss out on the wonders God has in store for you.

I suspect that the prophet Isaiah could have never imagined driving in a car, nor could he have imagined the ‘play’ that goes on nearly every time Nancy and I are in the car together (though maybe a variation of this play did occur when Isaiah and his wife went out on the town with their camel or donkey . . . I don’t know . . .) but, just the same, his word resounds in my soul, “Look . . .”

It is so terribly easy for our sight, our focus, in this time of the year to be totally obliterated by what we want Christmas to be: we want Christmas to be fun; we want Christmas to be surprises; we want Christmas to be beautiful; we want Christmas to be meaningful; and . . . we give our sight over to whatever it takes to achieve what we want, what we imagine Christmas should be, what we feel pressured to make it be, maybe even what we dread it might become if we don’t do our part . . . and we forget to “Look . . .” with the eyes of Isaiah. We drive down the road of our good intentions and pick out our Christmas tree for the house . . . without ever looking at what the tree means. We drive down the road of our Christmas planning and carefully place boxful after boxful of decorations all over the house, without ever looking at ‘why’ we decorate and for Whom our home is being prepared. We drive down the road of our Christmas gatherings and stuff gifts under the tree until they have to be piled off to the sides, without ever looking at the Gift that gives all gifts meaning and without Whom December 25^th would just be another day.

“Look . . .” says Isaiah, and see the wonders God has in store for you in the most humble and simple of places. “Look . . .” says Isaiah, stop the car of your life in the middle of the road, if even only for a moment, and see God With Us (that’s His name, you know) change the world with the touch of a Baby’s hand, and not from a throne, but from a manger off on the side of the road where many will miss it. “Look . . .” says Isaiah, and see God’s Love for you made manifest, present, intimate, and personal. Stop and “Look . . .”, focus on what God is showing you, perceive what is around you, believe what is being revealed to you.

“Look . . .” It’s not a hard thing to do if we allow ourselves to be focused on what the prophet is pointing out to us on the road to Bethlehem. “Look . . .” It is as simple as turning your eyes from all the other earthly delights and allowing them to see, maybe for the first time, a sky full of angels and a stable full of shepherds, as children tell the old, old story all over again in the Christmas pageant. “Look . . .” It is an invitation to revelation, our opportunity to see with the eyes of the Master what God’s future beholds.

Nancy may never, ever be able to make me focus on the road in a way that makes her completely comfortable when we travel together, and the play may seem to go endlessly on and on in our car as we make our trips all throughout the year but, as of this Advent, I will listen to her quite differently now, for in her voice and in her urgency she will ever remind me of the prophet Isaiah and his resounding call to see with the eyes of God: “Look . . .”