Thoughts for the Day

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.....

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

This passage is one that we get each year in Advent. Isaiah looks forward to the coming of the Messiah who will change all things. He describes a world that is totally unknown to us where wolves don't eat lambs, meat-eaters turn to grass, and small children play with snakes. Violence has disappeared from this world.

But we who believe that the Messiah has already come have a problem! Beause one thing we know, particularly at the moment, is that violence is very much in our world. So do we think that Jesus failed in his mission? Well we need to remember that the introduction of God's reign of peace is not complete. At present love exists alongside evil. The Jews still await the arrival of the Messiah whom they believe will bring in peace, and we are not dissimilar for we await the Second Coming of Jesus when evil will be destroyed and He will reign over His Kingdom. We cannot think that Jesus failed, for he created the Church and offered us forgiveness of our sin and the hope of eternal life.

Our response to this longing for a world that is so different from our own, should be to pray for God to bring in a world where peace, justice, and His Grace rule, and to look at our life to see what we can do to advance God's Kingdom of love!

Heavenly Father,
You sent Your Son to bring in
Your Kingdom in the world.
Help us to remember
that we have a place
in this work,
since You call us to love You
and all people.
May we do what we can to help
the poor and needy
and bring justice to our world.
Amen.