Little child, grows up strong

Little child, grows up strong

Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2019

Each morning he will pull on sturdy work clothes and boots, and build righteousness and faithfulness throughout the land. And in those days the wolf will romp with the lamb and the leopard will sleep with the kid. Calf and lion will eat from the same trough, and a little child will lead them.

– From Isaiah 11 (The Message)

This was my dad at 4 am.

Awaken, pray, brush your teeth, get dressed with those sturdy work clothes and rubber boots. Go outside in every weather, open the barn doors, turn on the radio, and close the cows into their stanchions. Feed them with ground corn and hay (he lost his finger one day while grinding that corn). Put milking machines on the first cows. Repeat and repeat. Let cows out, bring the next ones in. Done with forty cows by 7 am. Twice a day. Every day.

Every month another farmer and Dad exchanged first place awards in the local butterfat categories. And I have to say that in those early morning milking hours he didn’t wake the rest of our family. We slept on.

This might also have been Edward Hicks in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1834. Or maybe not. Dad was a terrific farmer; Edward Hicks was a terrible farmer. He was a far more successful Quaker preacher. But also, Hicks always painted, signs and then pictures, mostly the same thing all his life (at least 62 canvases) – a changing scene he called “The Peaceable Kingdom.” (Click the link, look and see.)

In these paintings the wolf lies down with the lamb. The little child leads them. There may not be much sign of the person with sturdy work clothes and boots who brings righteousness and justice, but this restoration of the Garden of Eden does not happen without him.

He is who we’re waiting for.

And Advent sets a welcome frame around our waiting.

Again this year I spent a day with twenty or so others at a retreat sponsored by the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary. Always, it is a simple-sweet day. We had ample group and private time to reflect on the texts for each Advent Sunday.

Second Sunday’s texts invite us into “The Peaceable Kingdom.” Our retreat leaders asked a good question: “What is your vision of peace?” And they suggested possibilities: “Is it a restored relationship? Is it a decision to help those who have been treated unjustly?” Is it your acceptance of being a co-creator of a peaceable kingdom for the future? Is it a world free of war?”

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As I write, I think again what I thought yesterday: Where is it that I live? And is that where I want to be?

My geography spreads through more than rivers and woods and roads in between them. How does my mind’s terrain guide me into peace? What am I doing as a co-creator with God? What will be better when I leave it than when I came?

The sky has been blue, the air warm this week. The sun shines down on our lives, and I feel hopeful. Our Father never stops working. And he offers me the same sturdy work clothes and boots that he puts on every morning.

Lord, your strength is there for me, too. Your peace can carry me into my own peace. Your joy, O Lord, your joy, it rings and rings and fills me up with song.

https://www.davesandel.net/category/advent-and-christmas-devotions-2019/

http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archive.php?year=2019