“The cut-off stump of Jesse will sprout,
and a fruitful Branch will grow from his roots:
the Spirit of Yahweh will rest upon him,
the Spirit of Extraordinary Wisdom,
the Spirit of Perfect Understanding
the Spirit of Wise Strategy,
the Spirit of Mighty Power,
the Spirit of Revelation” ISAIAH 11:1
The guests have all left from your Thanksgiving Meal and you can’t wait to see the last dessert eaten, the stuffing thrown out, the leftover turkey frozen just to be able to eat something green again. Before you know it, we suddenly wake up to the coming of Christ or the “advent season”. When the son of man “rents a womb to come into the world”. (Augustine) The unexpected unwraps himself with something so small that becomes something so big. Right when you think you can never reach back and see any life from the stump, a branch begins to grow. It is called the story of redemption. It has brewed in the swirl for eternity, born the test of time only to come knocking at your door – the coming of him into your life. He is the stump grower, the branch extender, the vine connector. He becomes our ladder back to God in a most mysterious way. The little child in the manger always looks for the one that is invisible. The decay in your life where the roots have been forced to keep digging deeper will suddenly spring up and your cut off stump will grow like a green shoot. The germinator has come! Just allow him to come, forever come into you life and let him become the wonder for He too bore the brunt of the stump. Stumps understand other stumps.
It’s time to “sing, who were once barren”(Isaiah 54). Matthew Henry says, “The longer the church has lain desolate the greater will the transports of joy be when it begins to recover the ground it has lost and to gain more”. For in this Advent season, this coming season-you will gain new ground so to speak or new territories. Your life, your dreams, will sprout and grow till they overtake the very dark that they came from. Light comes in advent, when you receive the gift from the cradle hide it deep within. The barren one is comforted because It broke forth, as the breaking forth of waters—on the right hand and on the left, that is all around her house.
So go ahead, let the coming one come for the fullness of time came. As you hang your lights, decorate your tree-surround yourself with family, he comes in those precious moments hiding on their smiling faces. Open up your stunted self and watch the miracle grow…….