December 16: An Invitation to Wait on the Lord
♫ Music:
Day 14 - Saturday, December 16
Title: AN INVITATION TO WAIT ON THE LORD
Scripture #1: Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)
But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Scripture #2: Isaiah 64:4 (NJV)
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.
Scripture #3: Isaiah 25:9 (NKJV)
And it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”
Poetry & Poet:
“The Hawk”
by Franz Wright
Maybe in a million years
a better form of human
being will come, happier
and more intelligent. A few already
have infiltrated this world and lived
to very much regret it,
I suppose.
Me,
I'd prefer to have come
in the form of that hawk, floating over
the mirroring fire
of Clearlake's
hill, my gold
skull filled with nothing
but God's will
the whole day through, instead
of these glinting voices incessantly
unerringly guiding me
to pursue
what makes me sick, and not to
what makes me glad. And yet
I am changing: this three-pound lump
of sentient meat electrified
by hope and terror has learned to hear
His silence like the sun,
and sought to change!
And friends
on earth at the same time
as me, listen: from the sound of those crickets
last night, Rene Char said
prenatal life
must have been sweet -
each voice perhaps also a star
in that night
from which
this time
we won't be
interrupted anymore - but
fellow monsters while we are still here, for one minute,
think
about this: there is someone right now who is looking
to you, not Him, for whatever
love still exists.
AN INVITATION TO WAIT ON THE LORD
I have attended church services all my life, but there is one in particular that I will never forget. It happened many years ago in a little town in the eastern part of Cuba, but I can still hear the music and picture the faces of God’s people worshiping our Lord. The church’s town was also one of the poorest places I have visited. The town was established around a sugar cane factory that closed because, at one point, it was cheaper for them to import sugar than to produce it. However, when the country that was providing financial aid, sugar, and many other goods to Cuba stopped doing that, the Cuban economy, in general, and in this town in particular, collapsed. The church building did not have windows; they had two musical instruments, one maraca and one guitar with four strings, because they could not replace the two missing.
Amid this dire financial situation, the worship service at the church reflected the spiritual awakening Cuba was experiencing at that time. People filled the building, and many more joined the service from the outside and looked through the window holes. The worship music was amazing, and one song broke me to tears as I experienced how people sang with a true faith conviction that I had not seen before and that I long to experience again. The song lyrics expressed the belief of genuine hope in the Lord who loves us and is in control even in the middle of desperate circumstances. These believers smiled as they sang, “There is a house better than my current house, this is the house the Lord is building for me. I find comfort and joy in this situation, and I cannot wait to go there and be with my Lord.” The hope of these Cuban brethren was genuine and contagious. I was first impressed by their economic condition but immediately experienced what it is like to trust the Lord with complete confidence that he will act on our behalf. These believers were not concerned for their current houses but were anticipating with hope the “house” that Jesus promised to prepare for his disciples so they would live with him forever (John 14:1-3). This worship service was indeed filled with hope.
The prophet Isaiah offers us an invitation to wait in the Lord. If we are honest, nobody wants to wait. We all want immediate results. For some, a “waiting room” at a doctor’s office or a government agency looks like torture. An encouragement to wait for a solution when things are difficult seems contradictory to most of us. However, Isaiah’s invitation has a vital focus: the Lord. Our Lord is faithful, his presence is constant, and his deliverance is coming. Therefore, we can patiently wait with hope. Theologian Jurgen Moltmann explains that “hope is nothing else than the expectation of those things which faith has believed to have been truly promised by God.” We can wait in the Lord because we have hope and the assurance of a faithful God who cares for us.
Prayer
Our Father, we are grateful for Jesus Christ, who fulfills your promises and is the focus of our hope. As we patiently anticipate his coming, we wait with the hope that sustains us regardless of our present circumstances because we know something better is coming. As we wait, we all proclaim, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
Amen
Octavio Javier Esqueda
Professor of Christian Higher Education
Director, Ph.D. and Ed.D. Programs in Educational Studies
Talbot School of Theology
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 Art #1:
The Waiters
Grace Carol Bomer
Oil and wax and newspapers with a hint of gold
10 x 10 in.
Beneath the oil and beeswax, the artist attached newspaper and Scripture to this painting. This created the visual interest of foundational text but also added dark values and images to the work. Some of the text, like the word “wait” became relevant to the piece. There is Scripture around the head of the top figure and the word “wait” is visible in the other bowing figure. There are also forty tally marks, a motif Bomer uses to represent our time on earth, our time of suffering and desert wandering, as mankinds awaits our heavenly redemption and the return of Jesus. "Waiters” are those who serve and wait on others. Like waiters we are called to work, waiting tables and washing feet until Jesus returns. We are called to carry out the Great Commission. “No one knows that day and hour” (Matt 25: 36), so Jesus tells us waiters and waitresses to serve, stay awake, and be ready. The central figure is singing and the Scriptures surround her head––Hebrews 12 : 1-2 “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”
About the Artist #1:
Grace Carol Bomer was born in Alberta, Canada, 1948, and pursued a career in teaching (B.A. in English and history secondary education from Dordt University in Iowa) before she became a professional painter. Her art career began after moving to Kansas, where she worked professionally as a painter (1976 to 1981) beginning her study of art, and continuing her art degree pursuit at UNC Asheville in North Carolina (1981). With a degree in English of course her work is inspired by words, but most importantly, it is inspired by The Word, which is powerful and eternally relevant. The metaphorical language of Scripture, poetry and the classics, inspire her “metaphorical abstractions.” She attempts to bring together the word/image dichotomy, which was truly brought together by Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, and the image of God. The juxtaposition of image and text creates connections and metaphors that may not be predictable or seen immediately. And her use of the aesthetic language of parable, storytelling, and analogy stirs the imagination to consider the eternal drama of God’s grace and love for a broken and fallen world. She paints to make the visible, the invisible true story. She views her work as “a form of play rejoicing before the face of God” (Rookmaaker). This is reflected in the name of her studio, Soli Deo Gloria Studio, in Asheville’s popular River Arts District / Warehouse Studios #6. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions and solo and juried exhibitions, nationally and internationally—most recently, SESSION 05, an Invitational Exhibit at Galerie AZUR BERLIN, (July-Aug. 2023) and Global City Babel, a solo show at the Connie A. Eastburn Gallery, Cairn University, Langhorne, PA. (Sept-Dec 2021). Her work is included in many public, private, and corporate collections including Mission Hospital; Wachovia Bank; Westinghouse; Center Art Gallery; Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI; Concordia University, Irvine, CA; Forest Hill Church, Charlotte, NC; Historic Trinity Church, Detroit, MI; and many more.
www.gracecarolbomer
About the Music:
“Wait for the Lord” from the album Joy on Earth
Lyrics:
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart!
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart!
Prepare the way for the Lord;
Make a straight path for God.
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Prepare the way for the Lord!
Rejoice in the Lord always.
God is at hand.
Joy and gladness for all who seek the Lord.
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart!
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart!
The glory of the Lord shall be revealed;
All the Earth will see the Lord.
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart!
I waited for the Lord;
The day of my God.
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart!
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart!
Seek first the Kingdom of God,
Seek and you shall find.
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart
Wait for the Lord, whose day is near;
Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart.
About the Composer:
Jacques Berthier (1923–1994) was a French composer of liturgical music, best known for writing much of the music used at the Taizé Community. After learning first from his parents, Berthier was later trained in music at the École César Franck in Paris. In 1955 Berthier was first asked to compose music for the Taizé Community, which was then just a monastic community of twenty brothers. Six years later he became organist at the Church of the Jesuits in Paris, Saint-Ignace, where he worked until his death. In 1975, Berthier was again asked to compose for Taizé, this time for chants to be sung by the increasing numbers of young people coming to worship there. Over nearly twenty years, Berthier built up a body of church music that has been utilized around the world. In more than twenty years, Berthier left an important body of work (232 songs in twenty different languages) in wide use today by other communities and around the world. He is also the author of masses for organ, a cantata in the form of the cross, and a cantata for Saint Cecilia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Berthier
About the Performers:
Taizé Singers
Taizé Community is an ecumenical monastic community in Burgundy, France. Founded in 1940 for refugees of the German occupation, Taizé has since become a refuge for people from around the world seeking peace and unity. The brothers welcome pilgrims into their community to share meals and sing together. The songs of Taizé are short, easily memorized phrases from various languages sung over and over in contemplation. This repetition allows the meaning of the songs to sink deep into the soul and to continue in the quiet of the heart long after the music stops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiz%C3%A9_Community
About the Poetry and Poet:
Franz Wright (1953–2015) was an American poet. He and his father, James Wright, are the only parent/child pair to have ever won the Pulitzer Prize in the same category. He earned his B.A. from Oberlin College in 1977. In his precisely crafted, lyrical poems, Wright addresses the themes of isolation, illness, spirituality, and gratitude. Critic Helen Vendler wrote in the New York Review of Books, “Wright’s scale of experience…runs from the homicidal to the ecstatic...His best forms of originality: deftness in patterning, startling metaphors, starkness of speech, compression of both pain and joy, and a stoic self-possession with the agonies and penalties of existence.” Wright received a Whiting Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He taught at Emerson College and other universities. He also worked in mental health clinics and volunteered his time at a center for grieving children.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/franz-wright
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Wright
About the Devotion Author:
Octavio Javier Esqueda
Professor of Christian Higher Education
Director, Ph.D. and Ed.D. Programs in Educational Studies
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
Dr. Octavio Javier Esqueda is a professor of Christian higher education in the doctoral programs at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. He was born and raised in Guadalajara, México, where he graduated with honors with a Licenciatura in Latin American Literature from the University of Guadalajara, as well as two additional diplomas, one in religion and society and the second in journalism. He graduated with honors from Dallas Theological Seminary with an M.A. in Christian Education and completed his Ph.D. in Higher Education at the University of North Texas. Before coming to Biola University, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He and his wife, Angélica, have two children, Darío and Salma. Dr. Esqueda has several publications on theological education, Christian higher education, and literature. Teaching is his passion, and he has had the opportunity to teach in several countries on different academic levels. He is an avid soccer fan.