“Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence” (Isaiah 64:1 World English Bible).

Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas that began on November 29. Advent is the time to prepare for the Lord’s coming, to get ready to meet God on Judgment Day. Advent is also the time for us to realize that when we call God to come down to fix the world, one of the things that needs fixing is our own sin.

God did answer Isaiah’s prayer. God came down, but in a surprising way… not in power, but in weakness. He came not as a mighty warrior, but as a little Baby. He came not to wipe people out but to wipe them clean, not to punish sin, but to be the punishment for sin. Instead of rolling up His sleeves to flex His muscles, Jesus bared His back to the whips of the soldiers.

Isaiah prayed for the rending of the heavens, that God would come down and the earth would tremble. It did, but not in fear. The earth trembled in sorrow when Jesus, the Son of God died, and there was an earthquake during which the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom because Jesus had removed the barrier of sin that had separated us from God.

--submitted by the Rev. Ken Johnson, Pastor of Zion and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches of Avon and Springfield