A Renewed Creation

As we continue with our Advent discipline, bearing in mind the richness that this season brings, we focus on the First Reading from the Prophet Isaiah (Ch.11, v.1-10). I believe that this is the perfect scene of the moment we have all been waiting for -- the moment when all of creation will be renewed by the second coming of the Lord Jesus.

Our world today is loaded with anger, animosity and apathy. We see all around us wars and famines, deaths and sickness and what have you that truly hamper the human spirit from hoping. Advent is a season of hopeful waiting, but what is there to hope for?

The prophet Isaiah perfectly articulated the moment that will come, the moment that we all have been hoping for. As the Prophet prophesied,

"Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD."

Advent indeed gives us all the reason there is to hope for. To truly hope for the Lord's coming. And as we prepare for that, let our refrain be: "Come, Lord Jesus... and renew all of creation! AMEN.