Rivers in the Sand

Tags

Isaiah, Liturgical Seasons, Photography

 

Trickles of water carving pathways through the sand proof that there is water, working its way around small pebbles journeying onward, ever onward.

Draw near to me, hear this!
From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
from the time it came to be I have been there.
And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit.
Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you for your own good,
who leads you in the way you should go.
O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your prosperity would have been like a river,
and your success like the waves of the sea;
your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.

Isaiah 48:16-19

Advent Hope

Tags

Isaiah, Liturgical Seasons, Religion

I feel as if I am still in the week of Advent I rather than Advent IV.  There has been a lot of sorrow, anxiety and anger around.  Death is being hard to those who are left to grieve and to those whose are being called home.  Jesus didn’t come into a clean tidy world so why should the time when we prepare to celebrate his birth be any different?  That’s what I keep telling myself, but even after a wedding on Saturday, two Crib services (included one with a splendid new crib), a Nativity play and Service of lessons and carols by candlelight on Sunday, Monday has been a day deep deep in Advent.

How I long for the daylight of Christmas chase away the darkness of Advent and bring comfort and peace to those for whom sorrow or waiting is making the darkness seem unending, oh how much this prophesy is needed this year, come Lord Jesus:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.  They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour.

Isaiah 61:1-3