365: Isaiah 10, 11 and 12 (Day 211)

A new branch will grow from the stump of a tree. (Isaiah 11:1 - NCV)

In the 1995 movie A Walk in the Clouds, Keanu Reeves stars as orphan turned WWII hero Paul Sutton, trying to reintegrate his life upon returning stateside. He meets and falls in love with a young woman of means, Victoria Aragón whose family owns a vineyard and winery in the Napa Valley. As an orphan, Reeves’s character is drawn to the strong family ties demonstrated by the Aragóns, but he is squarely rejected as not good enough for his daughter by Victoria’s domineering father. During an argument between the two, the older man throws a lantern, igniting the tinder dry grape vines, engulfing the vineyard in flames. The family’s financial future seemingly goes up in smoke along with Paul’s desire for belonging.

Then Paul realizes the parent vine (the vine brought from Europe to Mexico and finally to California), though burned, was set off a short ways from the main vineyard. Taking a knife, he cuts into the root to discover that the heart of the vine has been untouched by the fire. Though it will take time and hard work, the family’s fortunes are restored, and Paul is welcomed into the family.

Many will recognize Isaiah 11:1 as prophesying the birth of Christ. The phrase stump of Jesse (NIV, NRSV KJV) indicates the Christ will come from the line of King David, but David’s line has been all but destroyed, like the parent vine from the Aragón vineyard. However, no matter how dead things may look, there is life under the surface.

How many times, in crying for God’s deliverance, have we despaired as the axe fells our tree of hope? Isaiah’s lesson to us today is that even when it seems too late, that we’ve been abandoned, that the tree is dead, God may just be up to something. Even if it seems the time for deliverance has passed you by, hold on in hope. As sure as God lives, there is new growth waiting to sprout from the root of your life.

I am about to do a brand new thing. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness for my people to come home. I will create rivers for them in the desert! (Isaiah 43:19 - NIV)