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Advent Devotional for Friday, December 10
Christians understand this text as a key prophecy of God’s redemption in the coming Christ, but it also is a glimpse into the very nature of God’s salvation. The author repeatedly emphasizes how the salvation of the Lord transforms ordinary things into extraordinary, even beautiful, things. Ordinary feet that participate in the announcement of peace become beautiful feet. Craggy mountains, wastelands, are transformed by the beautiful tapestry of joyful messengers flowing into the city. Lonely watchmen lift their voice, and the air fills with beautiful song. The strength of the Lord is witnessed through the downtrodden of Israel, the suffering servant.
Of what significance is this pattern, juxtaposing beauty with ordinary things? The author plainly intends to remind us of the utter surprise of God’s salvation. Our lives are recast in the glow of God’s future salvation, in which all are caught up in its glory. Isaiah is rarely thought of as a comedian, but here we have to laugh when imagining dirty feet as beautiful; gruff watchmen singing in operatic style; desert hills woven into a tapestry of joy. Laughter is indeed the appropriate response.
In our time, politicians, economists, and scientists predict our fates according to their theories. With certainty they tell us which laws, military actions, or cultural forms best serve us. They observe that greed is good, power is the means to peace, and gay couples are odd. In these ways and many others, we are taught what is normal. Yet, in our certainty, we forget Isaiah’s comedic proclamations that feet are not only ugly, hills are not only craggy, and watchmen not only gruff. The advent of God in Christ reveals them as caught up in God’s surprising beauty. In the glow of God’s salvation, things are often more than they seem, and sometimes even the opposite of it.
God whose coming is often hidden, help us to hold loosely our certainty about how the world is rightly configured. Open our eyes to the surprising ways you hide amidst the ugly, downtrodden, and unexpected. Open our hearts to your mysterious beauty. Teach us to laugh as your salvation emerges from such places. Amen.
David F. White
C. Ellis and Nancy Gribble Nelson Associate Professor of Christian Education
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
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