Finding Gifts in the Wilderness

Dear friends in Christ,

As we approach the fourth Sunday of Advent, I am reminded of the world of dreams, where both God and our subconscious mind can speak to us—in ways that can be both playful and powerful. I think of the dream world like an arid landscape, perhaps untended for years but still providing fertile ground for countless creatures, some more wild than others. The land might seem underutilized at times, but the beehives can be a source of honeycomb and the gracious space for grazing cattle or sheep means that their milk can be turned into curds for cheese and perhaps even butter.

In other words, some of the best gifts of life, the proverbial land of milk and honey, is found in places of abundantly creative chaos, sometimes thriving between and beyond the control imposed by agricultural production in neat rows.

In our reading from the seventh chapter of Isaiah, we hear the story of a sign from God: the prophecy of a child to come who “shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.”

Not only will the name of the  child be “God with us”—Immanuel—but also, this child’s arrival will coincide with the decline of Jerusalem’s rivals, such that the people can all enjoy the fruits of a new wilderness space: the gifts of God for the people of God.

Our hymn this Sunday, “Come, thou long-expected Jesus” speaks to both the promise and the prayer of our season:

“Born a child and yet a king, born to reign in us for ever, now thy gracious kingdom bring”

Blessings,

John