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Tuesday, December 18, 2007 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened… While Isaiah spares nothing in the area of ominous prediction, he also spares nothing in the area of hope. I am immediately captivated by the hopeful strains which pulse through this poem – a hope tenaciously tethered to his frequently repeated word, “shall.” Twenty four times in ten verses “shall” helps articulate what the transformation from calamitous ruin to glorious newness will look like. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom … They shall see the glory of the Lord … Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened … then the lame shall leap like a deer … everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah’s talk of better days would surely ring hollow if he did not have such a clear appreciation for all that is wrong. These verses only cheer me up because I know he knows how bad it is – and still he has both the energy and the audacity to believe that renewal is coming. Isaiah’s hopefulness, grounded not in superficiality or naiveté, bubbles up through the cracks and clefts of his brokenness and enables him to envision a restored future formed by God. Somehow the worst of life and the best of God need to be held together – it’s the only way to survive the first and be re-created by the second. Advent seems like a particularly good season in which to make our own list of “shalls.” They will be a healing alternative to our spiritual bleakness and to our pessimistic assumption that newness is not possible – and, such a positive disposition will annoy our enemies. These are all good reasons to make the list, and to live as if it were all true, right now. |
