Advent Devotion

The tiny nativity that sits in front of our television
(and yes, the cow falls over at least once a day, and sometimes Mary too)

Monday, December 16, 2018

Isaiah 9:6b-7

In my weathered, twenty-three year old New International Version (NIV) student bible with the neon cover that I bought myself during my first year of college, this verse declares that, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” 

And in The Message translation I Googled (oh, the changes the last twenty-some-odd years have seen), the verse announces, “His names will be Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.” 

The language is similar, and yet…it’s that part about wholeness that struck me. Prince of Wholeness is not quite the same as Prince of Peace. And the “wholeness he brings” is an interesting concept. And one I’m quite sure I’m not the only one searching out.

As humans, I believe we want to feel whole, to be whole. We want to feel important and needed and loved. We want to feel complete, and I find it so hard to feel that way in this world we live in. And I know I’m not alone in this either. We try to complete ourselves with any number of things, activities, devices, and yet, it’s not enough. We still need more. 

But that’s where this verse comes in. That’s where this reminder leads us. For unto us a child is born. It’s a person, Jesus, sent from God, that will make us whole. And there are no limits to the wholeness he brings. 

Think about your best friend, or the stranger you last smiled at on the street. Think about your mother or the bagger at your grocery store you see every week. These people can bring joy into your lives. They can bring love and hope and light. And well, Jesus, He is all of these people. But most of all, this advent season, He is that little baby in the manger, bringing us wholeness. Bringing us the peace that wholeness brings, even if it’s just for a few moments. 

As I think about this verse in Isaiah, I realize that Jesus is what held me together this year through a cancer scare, through three parental hospitalizations, through a devastating job change, and through the everyday excitement and drudgery of life in these United States. Jesus is who made me whole, Jesus is who kept me whole, and Jesus is who will keep me whole every day to come. I search for His wholeness, his peace, hourly, daily, on a conscious and an unconscious basis. And He has it, always at the ready but never more brightly that right now, during Christmas. And I pray that we all find the wholeness we search for daily during this advent season.  

Prayer: May this child born to us, for us, bring us peace and make us whole, today and every day to come. Amen.