Advent
December 13, 2016

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. –Isaiah 7:14-16

It always seems a bit of a cop out to explain God’s acts by calling them mysteries. While many of us like to read a good mystery now and then, we want the ending to tie up all the loose ends. God’s mysteries that bugged those who followed God thousands of years ago remain enigmas today. The word mystery means a religious truth revealed by God that man cannot know by reason alone and that once it has been revealed cannot be completely understood*. I must confess, I did not know that the word mystery had its origin from religion. There is a non-religious definition something that has not been or cannot be explained, that is unknown to all or concealed from some and therefore exciting curiosity or wonder, or that is incomprehensible or uncomprehended*. It Sounds much the same without the religious overtones.

Isaiah’s discussion of Immanuel regarding Isaiah’s time and place could easily stand alone as words of warning to a king or words of comfort to people suffering the ineptitude of a king. Two and a half millennia later, Isaiah’s words speak to us of a Savior, a promised one, God with us whom we know as Jesus, the Christ. That is a mystery implying that there is some entity with a worldview older than time and newer than all tomorrows. Practical, rational being that I am, I take great solace in that.

Prayer: Lord, as we contemplate your coming to us during this Advent season, renew in us the sense of mystery that gives us hope for all that is good, right, and just because you came to be with us in wonder and love. Amen.

*http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/mystery

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.