Week 2: Discover Joy
Wednesday Dec 13
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantlyand rejoice with joy and shouting.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp;
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
A highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,
but it shall be for God’s people;
no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 35:1-10
On one of my first trips to the Middle East, after a long day of walking archaeological sites, my shoes melted. I guess it might be more accurate to say that the soles of my shoes began to rapidly separate into their component layers, but since it was approaching 110 degrees that day, I assume that heat was a contributing factor. The other major factor was, no doubt, the amount of walking I had been doing for many days on rough and sandy surfaces which was far different from the nicely paved sidewalks I was used to in my usually sedentary academic life. In any case, while I had the luxury of being able to purchase a replacement pair of shoes in the city before continuing on with my travels, I got a glimpse that day of the kinds of harsh conditions of the “desert-wilderness” that the Bible so often describes.
What is so striking about the passage of today’s reflection is how it builds from the image of a crocus sprouting in the wilderness (a hopeful, but not bewildering idea) to depictions of a complete reversal of desert-like conditions that seem increasingly to defy logic. Streams gushing in the wilderness, sand pits turning into water pools, not to mention the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, and the lame jumping like deer. It might as well describe melted shoes coming back together. But that is the nature of divine salvation. It is the breathing of life into places where there was no life, the introduction of hope in what might seem the most hopeless of situations; it is the reversal of entropy.
“A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way,” the passage caps off with a paved sidewalk spontaneously emerging in the desert on which the redeemed would travel in joy and safety. No melting of shoes here. Like the raining of manna from the sky, this road is the kind of divine provision that leaves no doubt that its origin is divine.
Is there an area of your life that appears hopeless, devoid of life, or fear-inducing? If so, what would a truly divine transformation of that situation look like?
Memory Passage
The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”
— Luke 1:35
Weekly Practice
Write a list of everything—big and small—that brings you joy. Display it somewhere you will see it daily.
Reach out to someone who brings you joy. Tell them, “I appreciate you.”
Practice embodied joy. For example, cook or eat something that fills you with delight. Or listen to your favorite song and sing or dance along.