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Advent Devotional for Saturday, December 4
Here it comes again. The story of God, our Creator and King, meddling with history. Parting the sea, delivering children from bondage. Born of a woman, offering light to the world. Isaiah calls for witnesses, wanting us to remember how God has been at work.
But then he tells us to forget: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.” Why does Isaiah tell us to forget what he just brought to memory?
Isaiah wants us to “forget” so we don’t miss the new things God is up to. The story of the sea is so glorious it could easily fill our minds and memories to the brim. How, then, could we ever perceive and enjoy the fresh water God supplies in the desert? Our lovingly crafted and beloved stories of the shepherds, angels, and star frame the space of Christmas. But what happens when they grow so large they threaten to block the view of Christ’s coming again?
Isaiah thinks we have something to learn about forgetting from the jackals and ostriches. Living in the desert, these animals are expert in finding enough water to survive. They know how to store, how to conserve. They know what plants offer the most hydration. And they would gladly set aside their knowing to drink from the bounty of a river. They would honor God by drinking from it, and in doing so would gain another path to life.
A central (though disconcerting!) lesson in Isaiah’s teaching is this: Our most heart-felt appreciation of God’s greatest works can stand in the way of our perception. To know God afresh is to set aside even the best of what we’ve witnessed, opening ourselves ever again to the new thing God is up to. Do we have the courage to drink with jackal and ostrich, offering up our praise?
Incarnate God, in our recollections of the Season, protect us from idolatry. Give us the grace to remember what you have done in ways that help us see what you are doing. Show us the new thing you have for us, and help us receive it with praise. Amen.
Cynthia Rigby
The W. C. Brown Professor of Theology
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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