A Prayer in Spoken Word for Joy Advent: Isaiah 35

December 31, 2013
Brandi Friesen Thorpe |

Pt. I – Anticipation

Behold! This is the season of waiting. We mirror

And remember the shadows and hints of prophetic words

That were actualized in the birth and life of Christ

These weeks of waiting are reminders of the preparations

And promises that the Lord gives us in participating

In the narrative of Christ and in celebration of this season

As we are and were in deserts, we with the life of the Christ,

Are given gladness. In barren lands our thirst will be satisfied.

Our joy will be rectified, and it will be for one reason.

With the life of one child we are reminded

Of the life that Christ gave us by his death

And the grace he had for us in his last breath

 

Where dryness and dust have devoured greenness and life

The Lord promises us rejuvenation, the return of Noah's dove

He promises to transform our desert-like lives into joyful songs

Imagine for a moment the most splendid and majestic place you know of.

Mountains, valleys, seas, rivers, and prairies. Grandeur and glory.

In these images our joy is founded, made alive.

 

He promises our dry places will be replenished into this joy.

Not just for a moment or a season, but for eternity

And all this from one girl's unexpected holy maternity!

 

Pt. II – Rejuvenation

The prophetic words of Isaiah live now,

Through the power Holy Spirit it be

Infused with rich promises no one can plunder

 

The blind will no longer be called blind,

For their eyes will be opened and made to see!

That at last they may behold divine wonder.

The lame will no longer be called lame

For they will leap like the deer of the field

And dance on their feet to the sound of thunder

The mute will no longer be called mute

For they will burst out into holy song

That in the darkest night will wake those who slumber

 

In these promises of rejuvenation we find something hidden in the ashes

Rejuvenation - juv as in the jovial, is a RE - turning of joy

The re-imagination of joy.

The recreation of joy

The Revitalization of joy

The Reviving of joy

The re-trying of Joy

It is the promise of the return of Joy

 

And we are called to it.

 

 

Pt. III - The Call [of Nations]

If you grant me the possibility to encourage you

that this time-of-memory is an opportunity,

To remember truthfully that this is our reality

For now, for here, for every moment near

 

This is not an ancient story

It is one of now that is reachable and livable,

It is one of present glory

That we are meant to embrace, retrace, and continue to relive

In every season to fullness and completion

 

As we wait to remember

the day of his birth,

we remember too that

 

He has been born

He has died in scorn

And rose again on the third morn,

The temple curtain by holy hands torn,

Then ascending to heaven by angel's horn

We wait again, for the joyous return

Once waiting for a child’s birth,

Our waiting has a new mirth

We no longer just wait, but live in redemption

For our sins we receive, from death, an exemption

 

Heaven invades us vividly

The earth groans to imitate its maker

And we are waiting, but never idly

We anticipate, preporate and preponderate.

celebrate

And as such, invigorate

 

So, I pray that any of my inabilities

to see, to walk, to speak, to hear

Be redeemed, as it has been promised

May I call out in my deserts,

And in the deserts of this world,

For the rushing water that is the Holy Spirit

To rejuvenate the places that dry me out

The places that are scorched and spurned

The homes where wild darkness shouts

 

May together we call out for that redemption,

that is oh so sweet and good

For You have promised with joy and expect it we should

 

 

Pt IV: Celebration

 

Papa, I wear your joy like crown

For I am a royal child, your own

Anticipation, it is promised,

and in this season and beyond

I will celebrate and shout

because all of my sorrow, worries and waries

and my places of desert have given away to joy.

 

Sweet, and delicate

hardy and messy

Dangerous and desperately necessary,

 

I wait and participate, in joy, for you ---- Amen. 

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