Read it with me one more time: Isaiah 35. Then enjoy Eugene Peterson’s thoughts on why we join this magnificent chorus.
“The word that stands out in Isaiah 35 is sing. There’s singing at the beginning, singing at the end, and singing at the center. The reason for the singing is clear. The Holy Land — which had been subjected to repeated sacrilege and, as a result, became a wasteland — now blossoms. What had been a barren and windswept wilderness becomes a land filled with forests and carpeted with flowers.
Better yet, bodies are restored: Blind people see, deaf people hear, the lame leap, mute people sing. All the ailments that mar the image of God in men and women are cured.
Best of all, people return. The long separation between the people of God and the place of God is over. A way is created for the exiles to return home to God.
If God is the blazing center of all these realities, then all the things we once began in his name are worth continuing: acts of love, covenants of commitment, habits of faithfulness, songs of joy.”
I invite you to join me in pausing, taking it all in, considering what God has done in Christ and what Christ will one day complete. And SING. Even if it’s the Muppets’ 12 days of Christmas, there is reason to sing!
