Isaiah 40:25-31
“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
• The Advent reading today affirms the absolute uniqueness of Yahweh. Yahweh is not like any other deity. Yahweh is not like the best traits of a human. Anything you can say or think about Yahweh falls far short of God’s reality. As one of our Christian mystic forebears said, "If you can describe God, then what you are describing is not God."
• Do you have a guiding image for God? That is, do you have an image (Shepherd, Parent, Judge, King, etc.) by which you relate most often to God? Are there images for God you have resisted that you might consider today? Images help us relate to God, but remember, not a single one of them exhausts God.
• Notice the last few lines of the passage: “Those who hope in the Lord will . . . “ Pay special attention to the verbs . . . will renew . . . will soar . . . will run and not grow weary . . . will walk and not faint. Think about these verbs personally. How do you experience each of them in your life? Can you think of specific examples, rather than thinking in generalities?
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