Isaiah 61:11
“For as the earth springs forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations”. Isaiah 61:11 (RSV)
As I sit here in our cozy den, I see out the window, large delicate snowflakes softly landing on tree branches and quietly nestling between blades of green grass. The first snow of the season has arrived. By the time you read this we may be deep in too much snow and its icy misery. But today it is new, fresh and exhilarating. Looking toward the spring seems strangely odd and impossible. Today it’s dark winter.
The great prophet Isaiah’s poetry in these verses is trying to wake us up to a new year, new life, a restart like spring is on our planet. He is pointing the way to the “first coming” and “second coming”. We have just celebrated the “first coming” in the birth of Jesus at Christmas. Now we await the second coming, the end of time for a rebirth, a repentance, a resurrection and migration of the body to soul in heaven, when Jesus comes again.
Isaiah assures us that we are all in God’s hands. No matter what era in history or what is currently happening, God is there! Time is always in God’s hands, not ours. As we look at our planet right now, there are sadly wars, social injustice, selfishness, blindness to God in our daily living. Just as in the days of Isaiah the prophet, we need to heed Isaiah’s call to repentance, so that we may experience rebirth and new life in Christ our Savior. We need the Greatness and the Magnificence of God in our everyday lives!
Just as God’s creation brought forth His perfectly planned world, our eventual salvation is as certain as each new Spring, and with it, the life sustaining green vegetation of the earth.
Isaiah brings “Good Tidings” to us, the children of God, to see God in everything around us and know that there is always hope. Hope for us, Hope for the world.
We are in dark winter now with the promise of hope and “new life” to come!
Question for Reflection:
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With the world at war and many people hurting so intensely, where do you see hope?
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Since God made every single molecule in the world and in you, how do you daily acknowledge and thank Him for His many wonders?
Prayer
God of Isaiah,
We thank you for your many prophets who pointed the way to Jesus’ coming. Help us to appreciate all of our days you have given us, until Jesus comes again. Amen
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