Christmas day has come and gone, but we are still within the liturgical year’s twelve days of Christmas. I love these quiet days, past the busyness, to ponder the mystery of the incarnation! I open my Bible to these familiar words from Isaiah 9:
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy…
For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian…
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:2-7)
All those familiar and feel-good names for Jesus—Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace! I can hear Handel’s Messiah ringing through my mind. But the word that shimmers with energy for me today is one I’ve never paid much attention to before. It’s at the very end of the passage…Zeal.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
I go back through the passage to read what the zeal of the Lord has done:
Illuminated the darkness with light.
Expanded the peoples’ joy.
Delivered Israel from its oppressors.
Given his son as a newborn baby.
Given a son whose authority will grow, bringing endless peace, justice and righteousness forevermore.
Wow! That’s quite a list!
The word zeal still tugs at my sleeve, so I look up its synonyms.
Zeal: Passion, ardor, love, fervor, fire, avidity, devotion, enthusiasm, eagerness, keenness, intensity.
I close my eyes and slip into the quiet with the word zeal turning ’round and ’round in my heart. Oh, what passion, love, and devotion God has for his people! The ardor, the enthusiasm, the intensity—the lengths he is willing to go, not only for his creation, but for me! As my spirit becomes still a prayer rises like incense.
Use your zeal, O Lord, to turn my anxiety into passion; my depression into fervor; my apathy into fire. May the alchemy of your Word turn all of my base emotions into the shining gold belief that your zeal can do anything. Your zeal works miracles in a land of darkness and doubt.
I turn the pages of my Bible to the Book of John, Chapter 1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)
The zeal of the Lord has done this. How can I doubt that God can work through autism, dementia, anxiety, depression, divorce, and all of the chaos that surrounds us in this world today?
For a child has been born for us, 
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
