Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Good News for a Weary Time

 

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees.  Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.  He is coming to save you.”  And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf.  The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!  Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland.  The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.  Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.  Isaiah 35:3-7

We’re in the middle of Advent, a time for reflection and preparation.  At the first Advent it was a time of oppression.  Roman soldiers occupied Mary and Joseph’s country.  Taxes were high.  Government was a heavy hand, hard and capricious.  Mary was expecting her first child any moment.  Even at Mary’s tender age the exuberance of youth could be reduced to barely an ember.  Tired hands, weak knees, and, in Mary’s case, probably swollen ankles and backache were the stuff of every morning’s challenge.  And then came the tax decree that meant a week’s journey on the back of a donkey for a very pregnant girl.  Add that to the complications of pregnancy, and “weariness” just doesn’t begin to describe the difference between the darkness of Advent and the coming of the Day Star. 

Fast-forward a couple of millennia, and here we are on the post-side of two years’ pandemic-frenzy.  Heavy-handed and capricious government is still a reality.  Tired hands and weak knees are much the common experience.  And taxes?  Let’s not even go there!  That’s where the fearful hearts dwell too.  And Isaiah is still saying to us Be strong and do not fear…!    

And the normal response is, Lord, in your mercy.

Every time I think it’s safe to write (or even think) a phrase like winding-down, or, coming-to-a-close in connection with Coronavirus, there’s a new spike, or a new variant, or something else that stokes the flames of conflict and fear.  There is precious little rest for the weary, and little hope for any sense of normalcy in this world.  This old man’s heart aches for the groaning of our children and theirs, and for the children of Adam and Eve around the world.  This Advent is little more than waiting and whistling in the darkness.

And Isaiah still says the blind and deaf will have working eyes and ears; the lame will leap, and the mute shall sing; the springs will become rivers, and the echo of all-is-lost will fade into the distance like the memory of childbirth’s pain.  And it will be because our God is coming for us.  And anyone with a modicum of sanity understands that this world cannot sustain if He doesn’t.

And doesn’t that describe the waiting angst of Advent?  It’s not about Christmas trees, twinkling lights, and candy canes.  Salvation is not simply a one-and-done trip to the altar, or getting your name added to a church roster.  It’s not a matter of subscribing to this progressive doctrine, or that traditional dogma; salvation is the strength of the Creator, condescending to distribute His blood over our sins, and the Divine mingling with our souls.  It is taking away the burden of our selfishness and offering us a strong right hand of joy in exchange.

Advent is waiting for Emmanuel…that God with us.

For You Today

Emmanuel…kinda makes the wait worthwhile; don’t you think?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©   

For another post on this text see the WORLD UPSIDE DOWN

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