Every year Hollywood United Methodist Church curates advent devotions on their website. Today was Angela's day:
Isaiah 9:6b–7
The prediction written in this passage by Isaiah is full of
hope: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; and he is named
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
It’s full of hope for us, just as it was full of hope for
those in Isaiah’s nation affected by war when he wrote it. And this year, while
I’m trying to be cheerful and happy and full of advent and candy canes, it’s
hard not to feel sad too. Because it feels like we’re at war too.
At school my students spent much of November anxious,
concerned, crying. They have been affected by our nation’s rift just as so many
of us have, and in some ways, even more so. They don’t understand that it will
ultimately be okay, because they have no prior experience with going through
rough times as a nation and coming out the other side. They are scared for their families, for their
friends, for themselves. They are just figuring out who they will be, and even
though so many of us are too, it’s a little more dramatic when you’re twelve.
But in this passage Isaiah tells us that this child, this
Prince of Peace, will establish a kingdom full of justice, of righteousness,
and that there will be no end to this kingdom. I take solace in that today.
That Jesus is still king all these years later, and will continue to be. I use
that solace to be hopeful. To lift up my students during this holiday season.
To remind myself to turn on a Christmas carol and sing along rather than read another
thinkpiece on the Huffington Post. To believe that that child, born for us,
will comfort us, will love us, will save us. That solace will carry me.
Prayer for today:
God, I am grateful for Isaiah’s hopefulness, and I
pray he be a reminder to me this advent season. That he believed Jesus would
come, and He did. Thank you, for Isaiah, and for your son, that baby born for
me. Amen.
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