“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”
-Isaiah 11:6

Any time I think about the kingdom of God on Earth, the painting of “The Peaceable Kingdom” by the artist Edward Hicks comes to mind. To my slightly jaded eyes, there is almost something campy about that particular representation — not quite on par with “Dogs Playing Poker,” but in a similar hackneyed spirit.

And by the way, although we always give the lion top billing in that biblical reference, it is in fact a leopard that will lie down with a goat. The lion gets the calf and the yearling. Some misinterpretations wind up with greater credence than the truths they supplant. There’s a lot of that going around these days. Which is a shame, because the “peaceable kingdom” should be our rightful inheritance as Christians. Isaiah’s prophecy implies that it is incumbent upon us, whether we identify as wolves or sheep, lions or lambs, to embrace those who would seem completely inimitable to our wellbeing. It took the appearance of Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, to show us the way.

Lord, teach us loving-kindness that embraces those we would demonize, and help us to see that fear is a yoke that binds us in service to our worst instincts, while the love of Christ is what frees us to prepare for the kingdom of God on Earth. Amen.
-Michael Boss

“Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.” -Isaiah 11:5

It seems my entire life has been devoted to losing weight. I started the year with a goal; I wanted to return to my college weight (and confess I’ve over half-way there). I have reached the final notch in my belt and will need to either cut a new notch sometime in the next few weeks or pray Santa will bring me a belt with a new set of notches I can begin playing with.

I used to wear both suspenders and belts (suspenders to keep the pants up and belt upon which to hang my cell phone holster), but a friend made fun of me. He said, “There is the sign of a man with absolutely no faith – wearing a belt and with suspenders!” So now I mostly wear just a belt. Yes, I was shamed into it (I ashamedly admit). Besides, I got tired of the suspender grips constantly coming unsnapped. I guess I just wasn’t built for suspenders – or they weren’t engineered to handle the stresses I put upon them. Either way, I buckled down, lost weight, and notched it as a victory in the end (or wherever).

It seems strange for Isaiah to mention belts, for the men of the middle east wear robes, and robes don’t require cinctures. On the other hand, they did need a place for tucking in their money bag or hanging their knife. This allowed them to keep their hands free for working the land, or testing merchandise being sold in the bazaars, or defending the flock from predators. Their belts enabled them to be safe and secure and to do right by friend and neighbor.

Advent, it seems, invites us to learn to let go and let God. It may be a season in which we live in suspense, but we are free to belt out those wondrous tunes that guide us toward the season of light and joy.

God, help me relax. Help me to know that you’ve got me covered. Help free up my hands that I may use them to Your glory, and to Your honor, and to the praise of Your Name. Amen.
-The Rev. Keith Axberg

“The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”
-Isaiah 11:2

The story of Guadalupe features an Indian man 10 years after the Spanish conquest of southern Mexico, who encounters the Virgin. She sends him to the Spanish bishop to ask for a church to be built where she stands. As an Indian, he hardly has the social capital to talk to the bishop like that, and the bishop initially resists, but in the end, a miracle is wrought and the church is built. Over 500 years later the stone building still attracts thousands of pilgrims daily. It is not large or impressively decorated. It seems to gather up in its stones the memories of an encounter that stands society on its head.

The above passage refers to God’s chosen messenger who will establish just rule in Israel once more. In our day, perhaps we can see that messenger as the Indian man who obeyed the command of the Lady and forever colored the Hispanic experience of the faith. Battling against unjust social structures in the church, he nevertheless delivers the message and the church is built. The story still inspires people of indigenous and mixed-blood in Latin America. “If God talks to us through the divine mother and brings justice, we have hope.”

It remains to the powerful to surrender to the work of God and follow along. I am a white, male, American citizen. I am powerful. Like the bishop’s initial reaction, I can pull what I have to my bosom, fending off any who would chip away at it, or I can bend the power I have to serve what God is doing among powerless people. The story of Guadalupe places hope before the powerless and a challenge before the powerful.

Be present with your people, O God of liberation, and give us the strength to follow Juan Diego’s vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe to bend earthly power to the service of your Kingdom, through him who liberates us, your Son, our Lord who with you and the Holy Spirit, live and reign in glory everlasting. Amen.
-The Rev. Paul Moore

“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”
-Isaiah 11:1

It is perilous to be a young tree on Big Lake. The beaver makes regular rounds.

Years ago, I planted a Gravenstein apple tree. The beaver chewed it to a stump. New shoots grew. I put wire around the tree to protect it from the beaver’s teeth. The tree grew back, producing huge, juicy apples. Last winter the beaver climbed up the wire and pruned it again to a bare stump. This spring the injured stump sprouted a leaf. By the end of summer, it had several healthy new branches surrounded by a wide wire cage.

Out of an injured stump, new life springs.

Over and over again, the people of God were crushed. And new life sprang up.

Over and over again our lives, our hopes, our dreams get crushed to lifeless stumps.

I wonder: What happens in an injured tree root before new life springs forth?

What healing happens in us that allows new life to spring forth in us? What happens between grieving loss and the healing that allows new life to surprise us? What goes on in the between time?

What has been crushed in you that you are grieving? What helps you to heal? When have you been surprised by new life? Where is God in your grieving, healing and resting, waiting and watching? Advent asks us to be quiet, to rest, to watch, to wait. We do that in the promise that we are never alone; never without hope.

Gracious One, in whom we live and move and have our being, You see crushed stumps with love and hope. Hold us in our grieving, our resting, our healing. May we wait and watch with the assurance of your presence and in the hope of new life springing forth in the most surprising ways. Help us to become even more a healing, restoring, life-giving community to a world that needs your love. Amen.
-The Rev. Vicki Wesen

“He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
-Isaiah 2:4

When I was in the hospital with pneumonia in February 2019, my laptop died(!) and I was bored out of my mind. I started channel-surfing on the TV in my room and found a TV show where they were throwing homemade knives against a wall to see if they survived. It was a TV show on the History Channel called “Forged in Fire” and contestants competed to make knives and swords for a $10,000 prize. It was fascinating to me because of the need to understand the composition of the steel they were using, the culture and history behind the knives and swords contestants were told to make, and the way they were fashioning the blade was interesting to watch. (Seeing men working in utili-kilts was also pretty fun.)

This particular verse from Isaiah 2 caught my eye when I was looking at verses to use for this devotional book because I could now understand all the work involved in “beating swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” This was before the time of the gas-powered forges that many metalsmiths now enjoy, so smiths would have to heat their metal in coal-powered forges and hammer it out on anvils. The process of beating spears into pruning hooks would involve heating the metal and shaping it into a hook by beating it around the horn of an anvil with a hammer. Beating the swords into plowshares would involve broadening the tip and sharpening it.

The thing that makes this image so amazing is the idea of repurposing an instrument of war into something useful for peacetime. Israel was usually at war with somebody, and it would be ludicrous to repurpose a sword or spear this way. However, things are changing. The Messiah is coming, and the ways of the world are being turned upside down. Things meant for war are now only going to be used for peaceful purposes. Change is coming.

Mold our hearts, Lord, and change them as a metalsmith changes the swords and spears into something more useful for Your world. Amen.
-Jen McCabe

“For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”
-Isaiah 61:11

As an aspiring gardener, this verse really speaks to me. In the darkest times of winter, the catalogs arrive, and I spend hours pouring over the beautiful illustrations and descriptions and thinking about and planning for spring planting season. As the weather warms, the earth brings forth all kinds of shoots, some desirable and some not so much. (Bindweed and buttercup, really?!) I wait eagerly for the carefully planted seeds and tubers to spring up and rejoice as they grow and produce. Then comes the challenge of weeding, feeding, and watering to make sure the plants can produce. The earth and the garden may cause the springing forth, but the gardener’s skill, knowledge, and hard work are necessary to ensure the harvest.

I look at God, as the creator of the Garden of Eden, as a true Master Gardener! How God must rejoice when righteousness and praise spring up before all the nations. As a part of His creation, I believe our responsibility is to foster the development of righteousness and praise through our thoughts, conversations, and actions. As St. Teresa of Ávila so beautifully writes: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

Gracious God, we thank you for giving wonderful examples to help us follow you. Help us to live and grow in your love. In Jesus’s name, we pray. Amen.
-Cathey Frederick