Scripture: Isaiah 9:2-6
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.” –Isaiah 9: 2-3
By the time Jesus was born, these words from Isaiah were already ancient. God’s people had been reciting them for hundreds of years.
My third-grade students memorize this passage every year in December. It is assigned on Monday, and they are able to recite it to me by Friday. As I sit and listen to twenty nine-year-olds recite the scripture, I often imagine the nine-year-olds who would have recited it thousands of years ago. Did they feel like they were walking in darkness? What did they imagine as “a great light”? Were they desperate for deliverance from enemy warriors? Were they anxiously awaiting the results of a harvest? Could they ever have imagined their deliverance to come in the form of a child not much younger than them?
I think about how those ancient children are like my students today. The ancient children were declaring the coming of a Savior and the children today are declaring a Savior who will come again. Children are still speaking of a faithful and just God who delivers his people. When I listen to my students recite the same words from the prophet Isaiah, knowing that these words will continue to be passed down for generations and generations to come, I feel one thing: hope.
Emily Wakefield, married to Jeffrey, teaches third grade at Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill.