ADVENT WEEK 4 — LOVE The Road, the Detour, the Divine Setup

Mary and Joseph probably thought the census was the very worst timing.
An exhausting journey. A crowded city. A door slammed with, “No room.”
A manger instead of a room.

Yet heaven wasn’t improvising. Every inconvenience was already woven into prophecy.
Every detour was part of a divine setup. Every closed door was guiding them to the exact place the Savior was meant to enter the world.

And here we are, centuries later, trying to make sense of our own detours; the painful twists of estrangement, the long seasons of silence,
the ache of watching a son or daughter choose a road we never would’ve chosen for them.

The world tells us to manage it all psychologically: to analyze the wound, to name the trauma, to craft the boundary,
to fix ourselves so we can tolerate what’s broken.

But beneath all of that?

There is a spiritual war.

Estrangement isn’t just relational - it’s eternal.
Prodigals aren’t simply “sorting things out.”

They are walking roads where heaven and hell contend for their hearts…

and for the hearts of those waiting on the porch.

The battle reaches for you too.
For your hope.
For your peace.
For your patience.
For your belief that God is still writing the story.

So guard your heart, beloved parent.

Guard your porch.

Guard your gaze from wandering into fear or despair.

Seek the Lord when the road grows long.

Anchor yourself in His Word when your emotions betray you.

Remember:
The same God who prepares the road for the prodigal
prepares the heart of the one who waits.

This is the part the world cannot teach you.
No book or boundary plan can do for your spirit what the presence of Christ can do in a single moment of surrender.

Yes, the road is long. Yes, the detours hurt. Yes, you wish the timing were different.

But detours are not derailments.
And the long road is never the wrong road when Love Himself is walking beside you.

“From you shall come forth for Me one who is to be ruler…”
(Micah 5:2 ESV)