In November, our country was visited by the Prince of Wales, the future King of England. Now if the Prince and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, didn't come to your neighborhood, you missed quite a spectacle. Here in the Bay Area, the royal couple visited everything from museums to schools to small organic gardens and grocery stores.

Of course, nothing in their trip was accidental or spontaneous. Every step that they took and every route that they traveled was carefully organized and publicized. A team of highly trained event planners had scripted everything in advance. Admirers flocked to see the couple wherever they went, and they were always prepared to greet the crowds with grace and charm.

The visit of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall to the United States was, in a way and advent. The arrival of the Prince had been announced, and meticulously prepared for. The streets were cleared and a motorcade guided and protected the couple each step of the way.

The Christian Advent is the celebration and preparation of the arrival of a very different type of Prince. The Prince of Peace is not a wealthy potentate, trained for a life of pomp and diplomacy, and his advance team is not a group of professional image controllers. Our Prince is a bit of a nobody, a backwoods preacher with a perfectly ordinary background.

His "advance man," John the Baptist, is even more obscure and unlikely. Dressed in animal skins and eating locusts, he has the look and feel of a madman, calling all within earshot to "Prepare the way of the Lord."

The Gospel begins with the same themes that carry on throughout the story --- humility, generosity, service and joy. We see the beginnings of the story today, with John anticipating the arrival of the Messiah, knowing that he will soon be overshadowed by the one who is to come.

We are called to do the same --- to continue to prepare for arrival of Jesus Christ. We must be prepared for Jesus to enter our lives at any time and for the final time, when all things will end. We must prepare his way into our lives and into our world by removing the obstacles that might be in his path --- the distractions in our lives and the injustices in our world that block God's progress. Advent is a time when we are asked to identify these obstacles and reflect on how we can remove them.

Paul tells us in the second reading that Jesus comes "like a thief in the night" --- suddenly and without warning. We must be prepared. If you're like me, you're not always looking for Christ in your day-to-day life --- at work, at home, in interactions with friends as well as strangers. But that is where he is.

Unfortunately, the season of Advent has evolved into a something that can be a season of distraction in our culture, where we are more concerned about shopping, Christmas parties, traveling and entertaining relatives than we are with welcoming God into our lives and our world. We are called to prepare his way. And it may just be that by recognizing the presence of God in the "nobodies" around us that we have the chance to do this.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.