Where? We can't see God; we can't reach out and touch God with our hands. We do believe God is present here and now, but how can we know for sure? The prophet Isaiah tells us to stop and look around us and once our eyes are opened, we will see the hand of God at work in the world. Meister Eckhart, a German theologian and mystic in the 13th century, said that all creation is a book about God, but how often do we notice what is right before us, take time to open the book?

The season of Advent is a good time to focus our attention on the places in our lives, both within and without, where we find the desert blooming, the water rising up in the wilderness of our experience, the Holy Way opening before us. Like James tells us in our epistle lesson, "You must be patient." Such things seldom happen overnight. We have to be ready to accept the transforming work that the Holy One is doing in our hearts and minds day by day. The more we try to stay in control, to "do it my way", the longer it takes us to find the Holy Way, to recognize the reality of God's "bountiful grace and mercy" (as our Collect puts it) drawing us home into the embrace of Divine Love.

Take some time to sit in silence for a bit, and let the images in the Isaiah passage come alive in your imagination. I suspect that you will discover that here, right here, right now, is our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and your heart will sing for joy in the Divine Presence.