December 8: Prepare Yourself With Tender Affection
♫ Music:
Day 12 - Thursday, December 8
Title: PREPARE YOURSELF WITH TENDER AFFECTION
Scripture: Isaiah 52:1-2: 7-10
Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust, arise; sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, with their voices they shall sing together; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem! for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Poetry & Poet:
“Visitation”
by Carl Phillips
When it was over, they told me
That the creak of wings folding
Was only the bed, that shutters
Do not clap of themselves. Morning
was what it had always been, any woman
marooned in the air,
the nicked
blooms of suggestion, in the lamp,
in the lemonwood stool, every seam
or pocket slowly retrieved,
were the usual ones, what
everyone knows. Father spat
into the unswept yard below,
as if it too were an unseemly desire,
and passed through the door.
I am no mystic. I know
nothing rises that doesn’t
know how to already.
In my ears, only the clubbed
foot of routine, no voices, no
clatter of dreams: but I saw
what I saw.
PREPARE YOURSELF WITH TENDER AFFECTION
We just welcomed a puppy into our home; she is such a bundle of energy and fun! Like all energetic dogs she loves to run, and like all puppies she needs encouragement to learn boundaries. Part of this process involves leash walking, and also leash running. Leash walking is teaching Zara to stay close to us and show her how to control her own body as she walks around the neighborhood. Leash running involves a much longer leash and allows Zara to run ‘free’ and still be safe and secure; she is anchored for flight.
In today’s reading from Isaiah we see God’s chosen people described as released captives, called to celebration. The words are beautiful and invite us as readers to share in the joy and hope offered. We see in these verses a comfort and redemption of Jerusalem that is completed alongside a promise that ‘all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God’. Situated between this past action and future hope is the present experience of God’s people. They are called to a joyful, hopeful, exuberant expression of God’s relationship with them. Past action and future hope affects present day living. This calling is not without preparation, the Lord is not in the business of setting his people up to fail. Everything needed is provided by Him. In the words of today’s poet “nothing rises that doesn’t know how to already.” God’s chosen people are designed for the ‘flight’ of worship. They now need to follow the Lord’s calling, lift up their voices and shake off their dust. This preparation allows them to celebrate in the way for which they were lovingly made.
Look at today’s artwork - notice how the female figure in the center expresses the joy described in Isaiah. Yet also notice how she is anchored into her future flight; she is firmly secured in her expression of joy because of the future hope of her tethers. Likewise, the people of God, although wildly free, are secured in their celebration by the redemption of Jerusalem and future hope of the salvation of God.
Taking Zara out on a leash run requires preparation. However, once the long leash is anchored to us and then to her, she can run securely. As we wait together for the birth of our Lord, the promised Messiah, let’s live into our design for flight, not as constrained captives, but as followers of our Lord Jesus who designs us for worship and secures us; comforted, redeemed, joyful as we wait for his coming again.
Prayer:
Thank you Lord, that we are designed to worship you. As we wait for the coming of your Son, give us your joy that comes from a reminder of this design. Help us, Holy Spirit, to live joyfully, knowing we are loved, redeemed and comforted.
In your Son’s precious name,
Amen.
Sian Draycott
Instructor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Anchored for Flight
Maari Christante
2019
Digital photograph
24 x 30 in.
Artist/photographer Maari Christante reminds us in her work Anchored for Flight that life-anchors not only keep you on a steady, even path in life, but also propel you forward—especially when you hold tightly to the hope found in the unbreakable anchor connecting you to God.
About the Artist:
Maari Christante is an emerging fine art and conceptual photographer from Austin, Texas, who now resides in Northern California. Maari creates captivating surreal photography. Her inspiration is triggered by a simple prayer and posture—on earth as it is in heaven. Many of her works use the themes of light conquering darkness; bravery triumphing over fear; and grace, peace, and joy reigning over insecurity. Christante has a professional background in portrait and commercial photography, a traditional education from Texas A&M University, and an extensive resume of off-the-grid world travels. This combination, paired with a deep conviction that God is always good, has created in her a foundational worldview that informs her work and life. Maari photographs all elements on-location around the country and composites them digitally in her home studio in California. Her work has been featured at internationally attended exhibits, but she is most proud of the prints hanging in homes and offices around the world actively inspiring their owners to stay connected to hope.
https://www.saatchiart.com/maarichristante
https://fightsongstudio.com/pages/about-maari-christante
About the Music:
“Prepare Thyself, Zion” from the album Lupe Rios Songs of Advent and Christmas
Lyrics:
Prepare thyself, Zion,
with tender affection,
The purest, the fairest
this day to receive.
The purest, the fairest,
prepare thyself Zion
With tender affection.
Thou must meet him
with a heart with love overflowing,
With a heart with love overflowing.
Haste then with ardor
the bridegroom to welcome.
Haste and haste then
with ardor the bridegroom to welcome.
About the Performer:
Lupe Ríos comes from Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, México. He is one of twelve brothers and sisters born to a poor but happy family full of dreams and ambitions. When Lupe was a young boy, his family immigrated to the United States. In the United States, he immersed himself in religious music. Rios attended the University of Washington, where he studied political theory and economics with minors in human rights, religion, and music. He has served as the director of worship for Mission San Luis Rey Parish in Oceanside, California, and is currently director of music at Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church in La Jolla, California, where he is involved in a variety of music projects, including composing and recording.
https://www.lupedifranco.com/
About the Composer:
Johannes Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist of the Baroque period. He established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Mass in B Minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than three hundred cantatas, of which nearly one hundred cantatas have been lost to posterity. His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach
About the Poetry & Poet:
Carl Phillips (b. 1959) is an American writer and poet. He is a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis and a graduate of Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Boston University. His first collection of poems, In the Blood, won the 1992 Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize, and his second book, Cortège, was nominated for a 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award. Phillips' work has been published in the Yale Review, Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and the Paris Review. He was named to a Witter Bynner Fellowship in 1998, and in 2006 he was named the recipient of the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets. His poems, which include themes of spirituality, sexuality, mortality, and faith, were featured in American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets (2006) and many other anthologies. In 2015, Phillips released his thirteenth collection of poems, Reconnaissance, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best Poetry. Phillips was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2008 to 2012. The Board of Trustees of The Kenyon Review honored Carl Phillips as the 2013 recipient of the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Phillips
About the Devotion Author:
Sian Draycott
Instructor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Sian Draycott grew up in Wales and graduated from Oxford University with an M.A. in theology. Her M.A. in classical studies from the Open University (UK) developed her research in Greek tragedy and comedy as seen in the relationship between Euripides and Aristophanes. In addition to team-leading with IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) in Portugal, Sian has experience as a high school teacher in the UK and as an ESL tutor. She loves talking to people about Jesus and watching Wales play rugby.