Hackberry trees are the bane of my existence. These native trees are great for birds, who love the berries and thus reseed them all over the place. Including my yard…but always in places where I don’t need a hackberry tree! So, when I see a volunteer sapling, I pull out the trimmers and chop it out. Problem solved, right? Rarely. Even when I cut back the seedling, I will often go back later and find that out of the “dead” stump, a second shoot has popped up, just as vigorously as before. Try as I might to get rid of them, the hackberry trees keep coming back!
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots…” Isaiah 11.1-10
Isaiah gets it. In Chapter 11, he uses the metaphor of a stubborn shoot that comes out of an apparently dead stump. But instead of an annoyance, for him it is a symbol of God’s resilience that will not be exterminated. It is no surprise then that so many of the authors of the New Testament saw in Isaiah’s metaphor a connection to Jesus. Even in times where it looks like death and terror and injustice and violence have chopped God’s power to the ground, she who has eyes to see beyond the obvious will notice, stubbornly growing out of that stump, a shoot of hope. In Isaiah’s day. In Jesus’. Even in ours.
“…He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth.”
Do you see it, too? Are there little shoots in your life that demonstrate that God is still at work? Examples of justice and equity like in Isaiah? Examples of stubborn hope and wisdom? This Advent, may we spend our days gently pulling back the dead grass and rotting leaves of our world to see…a shoot of hope emerges.
Submitted by Rev. Dr. Matt Sturtevant
Prayer
God, give us eyes to see and ears to hear your coming Advent hope. Amen.