Fourth Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 7 : 10 - 14
..the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son and shall name him Immanuel..

King Ahaz behaved in a way that we may not be able to understand. Invited to ask for a sign, he (stoically perhaps) refused and in that way demonstrated a lack of trust in God's desire to give a confirmation of his presence. Nevertheless, the prophet Isaiah himself speaks out in prophecy, one that was fulfilled many hundreds of years later, when Jesus was born.

Perhaps Christmas should be a time when we can ask our Lord to continue to reveal his presence afresh in our lives. Faith can go stale when it becomes too routine and predictable. Our God however, is not to be boxed in and as Immanuel, his presence and action in our lives is ever new, ever giving us fresh insight about every person and event we encounter.

The day we await is drawing near.. the 'birthday' of someone we worship and love, someone who means more to us than anything else in life, the One who is truly the Way, the Truth and the Life.

He leads us (if we wish to follow) along the way that will come to the Cross, sometime, somewhere, somehow. He shows us the truth about ourselves, that in self knowledge, our knowledge of God grows. He is the one who sustains us, moment by moment, and in practicing his presence lies the abundant life we are to share with others.