” Let Us Rejoice, Let us Be Glad, Let us Praise God who holds our lives in His hands!”

This week is Rejoice Sunday.  In the midst of our Advent Journey we pause to Rejoice knowing that the Lord is near.  The cause for Rejoicing comes from God’s transformation of all creation.  As the desert and parched land are rejuvenated,  The message from Isaiah is that God will restore not only His creation but his very people.   “they will see the glory of the Lord and the splendor of our God.”    The prophet speaks this word to a people who had lost everything, when hope seemed lost.  Isaiah reminds the people that God will and can transform their suffering and oppression into joy.    God can restore what is His own, he can make it stronger.   So ” Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak,”  When we look to what is happening in our midst we become discouraged and despair, the message of Rejoice Sunday is that nothing happening in our lives is outside God’s ability to transform and use for our good.

It may seem difficult to see God’s action and power not only in the world and creation around us, but God is working things out in our very lives.  To often we see challenges and difficulties as too much and greater than ourselves.   Be assured they are not greater than God’s ability.  If what is happening in our lives seems unjust and tearing us down, God has already has instore for us His goodness and greatness to bless us.  I’ve spoken in the past the God is working everything out for our good.

God took the oppression and domination of the people of Israel and used ability in and through our lives to transform, mold and shape us into the people he has called us to be and created us for.   To live and rejoice in the fact that He is still God and it is he who seated on the throne.  God working and moving in our lives, setting things aright.  Let this time of Advent be a reminder of God’s action in working in and through whatever is happening in our lives.   Blessed Rejoice Sunday