I’ve been discovering that my new favourite thing about the Heart of God is the all-encompassing desire and promise to redeem all things.
In different seasons of my life I’ve clung to different parts of God’s character… after heart breaks and relationships ending, I would rely entirely on the faithfulness of God; Jesus promised to never leave or forsake us!!
In times of increased stress and literal failures in school, I learned about and appreciated the grace, forgiveness and mercy of God; nothing could make me less loved.
And in this season of adulthood, I’m beginning to realize that there is no “Later, When Everything Settles Down”… there is no “Everything Will Be Better When I’m A Grown-Up” time. There will always be challenges and struggles and loss. That is reality. And, honestly, I don’t like it.
However. Without that harsh and bitter reality, never would I have come to a place of depending so entirely on God fulfilling the promises to redeem all things, to send a saviour, to make a way where there is no way.
This year during Advent, the part of the story that has struck me most is The Stump.
It requires us to zoom way out and to consider the prophecies God gave the People of God through the Prophet Isaiah:
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
As Isaiah released this word about the shoot that would come up from the stump of Jesse, I’m almost certain he wouldn’t have expected it to take so long for that word to come to pass… And I’m sure he never could’ve imagined the Word taking on flesh; God becoming a human person to show us these things in Jesus.
As Christmas draws nearer and celebrations of Joy and Excitement bubble up around you, do not neglect the waiting and the longings within.
Let’s not set aside the Especially Difficult and seek to fill the voids within us with temporary delights. Let’s, instead, choose to trust the Word of God and what the apostle Paul wrote about him in Colossians 1:19-20, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Christmas is our time to remember the Game-Changer of the Incarnation: God becoming a man. Easter is the time when we remember the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, Emmanuel, God With Us.
Our task, as the People of God, all year round is to remember to zoom out.
To choose to celebrate and worship the Big-Picture-Knowing, Bringing-Beauty-Out-of-Ashes, Making-ALL-THINGS-NEW God.
The Word who became flesh; the Light who chases away Darkness; the One who mourns and rejoices with us, never leaving us alone – no matter how stumped we feel.
The rest of Isaiah chapter 11 goes on to describe an impossibly beautiful image of what it will look like when all things are redeemed…
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.
May you be filled with hope as you encounter the story of Christmas in new ways this year. May you experience Emmanuel in real and tangible ways and may the peace of God fill your hearts and minds.