Hope of all hopes, dream of our dreams, a child is born, sweet-breathed; a son is given to us: a living gift. And even now, with tiny features and dewy hair, He is great. The power of leadership, and the weight of authority, will rest on his shoulders. His name? His name we’ll know in many ways – He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Dear Father everlasting, ever-present never-failing, Master of Wholeness, Prince of Peace. His leadership will bring such prosperity as you’ve never seen before – sustainable peace for all time. This child: God’s promise to David – a throne forever, among us, to restore sound leadership that cannot be perverted or shaken. He will ensure justice without fail and absolute equity. Always. The intense passion of the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, will carry this to completion. Isaiah 9:6,7 VOICE
The chaos and upheaval and uncertainty on so many levels in our world today do not and cannot, subvert God’s Plan ‘A.’ Several words in the 2,700-year-old passage above have been italicized to shock us back into the reality that we are now living within that mighty, eternal plan which God continues to engineer. His son is a gift to us! (pause to let that nugget sink in). He is never-failing, throned among us (today and every day). That ‘always’ means always, while God slowly but surely works His plan to completion. That ‘always’ also means that every fear, worry, bit of anxiety, disappointment or personal idiosyncrasy is included. That ‘always’ also means the full-blown, all-encompassing, peace of the Prince of Peace is accomplished – for us! You name it and God replies, ‘Yep! That, too!’
I can hear someone say, but it isn’t fair that God gets saddled with all our smallness, our embarrassing pettiness. To which God says: “Saddled? Oh no! When My Beloved Ones bring those things to me, they evaporate, never to harass, never to be felt again!” And we are all God’s Beloved Ones with Him as the Lover of our souls.
The prophetic ministry of Isaiah may be close to three millennia old, but the contents are alive and well to this day. It is God’s intention that His children, in every age, might live in the beauty and the power of His message. During this Advent Season ‘24, His Word is still penetrating, is still refreshing, all who stop a while and listen. May it be said of us! Peace, y’all. PD
Don graduated from Regent University in 1988 and moved to France for seven years, coming back to the US briefly to marry Sue in 1990. The work in France included working in a Christian School and helping plant a church before returning in 1995. He’s been pastor of Peninsula Vineyard since 1999. He enjoys counseling, especially married couples, traveling back to France (with Sue), reading, doing Sudoku puzzles and sleuthing out good, dark chocolate. Don serves as the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church Peninsula, in Newport News, Virginia.