Advent readings in Isaiah abound in nature images. “Streams will burst forth in the desert.” “The burning sands will become pools.”  “I will set in the wasteland the cypress.”  And why?  “That all may see and know, observe and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it” (Is. 41:20). From the first moments of creation billions of years ago Christ immersed himself in the heart of matter providing an energy of love in every aspect of creation. Ever since, Christ’s love energizes our expanding universe.

Although Isaiah was written hundreds of years ago, the writer gives a glimpse of the creative love of the coming Messiah whose energy cured the lame and the leper. The prophet also gives a glimpse of the future of the universe when all will be one in Christ. Whatever has been and whatever will be is life, and where there’s life, there’s God.  This message is repeated in the prologue of John’s Gospel:  “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God…Through him all things came into being… Whatever came to be in him found life.”

Although Advent is described as a time of waiting, it’s also a time for doing. How are we life-giving? How are we energizing our world with love?