Isaiah 11:1-10' Ps 72 Justice shall flourish in his time, fullness of peace forever; Luke 10:21-24
"On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of JEsse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom..."
Again we turn our hear to the Prophet Isaiah as he prepares us for the messianic coming, as he gives us picture of what it will look like and what we shall hope in. Notice that the sprout comes from a stump, that which has fallen or that which has been felled. A stump is the remains of a once healthy tree that has succumbed to the elements either by nature or by force and is now only a shadow of what it used to be.
God begins to build this messianic promise in the unlikeliest places. From that place that looks dead and barren, from that place that appears done and over, from that place where life seems fade and hopeless, from that place new life shall begin, hope shall arise.
Look around in your life and see if you can identify that place or those places. Maybe there is where God is waiting for you.
The bud shall blossom, Isaiah tells us. A bud is underdeveloped, the first stages of hope there is still more to come. Patience is necessary to see the finished product. We have to wait for it. We have to nurture it and guard it. We have to be willing to see it through, see it to the end.
Advent is a time of new beginning. From the unlikeliest places new life shall push forward and begin to unfold.
Then Isaiah tells us that the Messianic Petting Zoo shall unfold, "the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the young lion, with a child to guide them, the cow and the bear, the lion and the ox, the baby and the cobra."
What a beautiful picture and image what can be when we all are penetrated with knowledge of the Lord.
WHo are the bears and lions and cobras and leopards in your life? How can this Advent bring you to that point of allowing the knowledge of the Lord to lead you to a new place of forgiveness, a new place of loving, a new place of relating?
How can the child, lying in the manger, the humble gift of God, enter your heart and prepare the way for new life to bud forth?
JEsus tells us in the gospel, "I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for though you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and you have revealed them to the childlike."
MEssianic Petting Zoo is open but only the childlike can experience its fullness. We must learn to become small and only then can the largeness of the kingdom begin to impress itself upon us from the inside out.
Here is a link to a previous post on advent
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