He is Coming

When the Rocks Cry Out

Original image credit to Syuhei Inoue

My Dear Lovelians & Lifers,

Do you hear what I hear? Do you feel what I feel? He is coming whispers Hosea. The earth has seen too much, absorbed too much wickedness and heinous crimes against humanity. The time of the kings. For hundreds of years, mankind wanders its own destructive path until the very rocks cry out for retribution. He is coming Isaiah cries. He is coming He is coming He is coming.

With every step through the timeline of Israel’s kings, I have begun to feel the vibrations of the earth, the rocks crying out, beneath my own feet. They call as they did those millennia ago when God promised a Savior, who came; a miraculous human baby born to the poorest community. The sky exploded in song to rich and poor alike. HE IS HERE the angels sang; and the earth rejoiced. Finally, God Himself steps in to satisfy the longing heart, one desiring wholeness stolen with every white lie, abusive word, and shameful act.

Christmas----The precursor to Restoration----Foretold hundreds of years before His arrival during the time of Judah’s last kings. The northern kingdom of Israel is gone; taken into captivity by her enemies because of her crimes. Now Judah is about to fall. But God won’t forget. He won’t abandon His people. He always gives the greatest hope during the darkest times, even when those dark times are self-inflicted. Songwriters and prophets alluded to His coming in metaphor here and there but never overtly stated it until Isaiah:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel [God with Us].

Now----finally----HE IS HERE HE IS HERE HE IS HERE! MERRY CHRISTMAS! HE HAS COME! Now, the Spirit of God Himself may finally rest in and around the hearts of humanity; the ones who choose Him back.

Surrounded by Christmas once more, I am reminded of this wondrous reality as I walk with the kings and witness the groaning earth. Then...and now. His people have grown sleepy, and the earth weeps as it did an age ago, desperate for salt. Isaiah again calls out through the pages of Scripture to the ones who now bear His name. Where is the mercy of His children! The prophet cries on the earth’s behalf. He is coming. Jesus Himself foretold His return, a day we still wait for; He is coming. A day cruelty, violence, and deception will no longer have a place amidst His people; He is coming. A day the earth and everyone on it will be at peace as it once was.

He is coming. There is hope for our future.

Merry Christmas,

Olivia

P.S. For those of you who wish to answer Isaiah's call but don't know how, my church and I are beginning a New Year fast the first week of January for 21 days to ask God this very question. Join me!