Today’s find: Peek performance

Precious little Hannah may have met her match.

In her 11 months on earth, our granddaughter has proven to be quite the charmer—able to melt hearts and elicit smiles from just about everyone she meets. That was true, at least, until she recently came across the life-size replica of a terracotta warrior who stands guard in the lower-level rec room at my brother’s home.

Well, hello there…

Try as she might, Hannah just couldn’t get any sort of response from the statue. He didn’t pat her head…offer a friendly grin…or even acknowledge her presence. And you could tell that it confused her a bit, because generally speaking the pretty lass knows how to work a room.

The amusing episode came rushing back to me today, as I listened to the first reading at morning Mass. Isaiah too, it seems, had been caught up in the sort of situation you tend not to see every day:

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
The calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

Such a marvelous, mystical vision it must have been for the prophet: So strange…and yet, so right—a testament to the transformative power of God’s presence among the people.

It’s an Advent scene, pure and simple, heralding the time when ‘There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD.’

What in the world am I seeing here?

And how blessed we are, in this season of waiting, to realize that we have to wait no more for God’s power to be made manifest.

Take a peek, Children of God: Jesus is already with us, offering to remake our hearts and restore our spirits. And this holy season serves as a reminder that Christ does indeed come with power, beating swords into plowshares…making the lion lie down with the lamb…and opening our eyes to the reality of God’s great love for us.

It may seem too good to be true, but as Hannah is beginning to learn, our human senses can be limited at times. Once we step out in faith, however, Jesus promises that the entire world can be transformed.

Turning to the disciples in private, he said,
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Luke 10: 24

Maran atha!

The message of Advent: Eye has not seen…what God has ready…for those who love Him.

Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy One.

IHS