Advent Calendar - Day 7

Today I'm getting excited.  The Christmas tree is up, the house is decorated and concerts are in full swing.  We're still more than 2 weeks until Christmas, but this is where the momentum picks up for me, especially as I start to hear those familiar Scripture passages.

I need to stay back, to live in the waiting, to reflect more on the message.  But oh, what a message!  I could read this all day.  The poetry is captivating, but it's the message that is even more riveting.  He's coming.  God is coming.  Enough with the fits and starts of history, the inconstancy of God's people.  He's coming to save - a fresh start for God's people.  A time when God will dwell with his people.

Isaiah 40: 1-11

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, 
and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out:
"In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

A voice says, "Cry out!"  And I said, "What shall I cry?"
All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings, lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!"
See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

If the language isn't beautiful enough, as a musician I hear the music too.  If hearing the message that way appeals to you, here it is:

The Christmas tree may be up, but He's not here just yet.  There is joy in the waiting.

CC