Word to the Wise
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - Tuesday in the First Week of Advent
[Isaiah 11:1-10 and Luke 10:21-24]Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra's den, and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair...... [Isaiah]
There is so much of Advent that we miss because of the hectic quality of this period in our culture. However, it is possible to derive a great richness if we take but a few moments each day to light a candle on an Advent wreath and read the scripture for the day. The passage from Isaiah for today is one of the most beautiful in the bible. It expresses a great longing for peace and restoration and evokes the original state of humanity in the garden of paradise. The American artist, Edward Hansen, painted a famous picture of it in THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM. (When a lion chooses veggies over the steak standing beside him, you know there's a big change going on!) Isaiah's words speak to the hopes and dreams of the Chosen People after the fall of Jerusalem and subsequent exile in 583 BC. But he could easily speak for us. I was born in 1943 and for the vast majority of my 66 years, our country has been engaged in armed conflict! The cost, in terms of the loss of human life, is appalling, let alone the economic and environmental destruction that occurs as a result. Praying for peace and an end to war may indeed be like asking God to make the lion eat vegetables instead of meat, but we must continue to try. Advent is a wonderful time to renew that task! AMEN