December 7th Advent Devotional

December 7

Isaiah 42:6-9

I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;  

I have taken you by the hand and kept you;

I have given you as a covenant to the people, 

a light to the nations,

to open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

from the prison those who sit in darkness.

-Isaiah 42:6-7

Being called by God is a common encouragement—you see it in screensavers, memes, calendars. It gives us purpose and certainty when we find those things lacking in our lives. However, the next part of these verses is not so often seen in pop culture—the why for which we are called.

In the education and corporate spheres, we are often encouraged to remember our “why.” When we hear that phrase, I am sure many people, like me, offer an involuntary eye-roll. However, Y*weh offers a “why” here that will hopefully open our eyes wider in a society that makes it so easy to close them.

 We are not called because we are great leaders; we are not called because we are influential. We are called to be a light, to “open eyes that are blind,” to “free captives from prison,” to “release from dungeons those who sit in darkness.” This verse reminds me of the many families torn apart by powers that seem invincible in our current world, to the people who sit in literal prisons. It also makes me think of the various ways we construct our own prisons.

The verse continues, saying that Y*weh will not yield glory to another. As we remember the why for which we are called and work in small, meager, perhaps imperceptible and seemingly insignificant ways, we can rest in knowing that we are not the only ones working. The glory is not for us; it is for the body of Christ.

The verse ends affirming that a new way is coming, a new manner of living, a hope for a world where compassion reigns. May we live into that hope daily and be reassured that our small movements toward that better world are compounded by other members of The Body doing the same.

Caitlyn Osborne Parris