A tender bud, growing from the root of Jesse, is Isaiah’s hope. Hope that the spirit of God will bring understanding beyond that which is seen with human eyes and heard with human ears. Hope that a child will grow in the knowledge of God to treat the poor with mercy and kindness. Hope for a land of peace and loving-kindness—for who but a child can have faith that the impossible is worth working for?
And we, like Isaiah, know our world aches for a tender bud of hope. People everywhere tremble in fright, cry for help, flee in panic. So with Isaiah we yearn for a tender bud sprouting with terrible faith that abundant life is still possible.
And as we yearn, perhaps even we are born into God’s kingdom as a tender bud of hope. As the spirit of God hovers over us, do we hear with our hearts the cry of the oppressed?
As the spirit of God hovers over us, do we, too, find childlike faith to create a land where we do not harm, a land full of peace and loving-kindness?
In this season and always, may the Spirit of God hover over us.
