Advents Joy and pain

Advent as a period of waiting has long been forgotten by the consumer generation.....the tinsel and elves are firmly established in our midst  but the readings for today put it firmly into perspective. The glorious words of Isaiah ring through our hearts to the music of Handel and its worth I think putting it into some sort of perspective.
Three different  Isaiahs were the prophets of God....and this passage  Chapter 40..1-11 by the second one was written during the last year of Jewish exile in Babylonia...They could see the forces of Cyrus King of Persia conquering all in their path and Babylon was going to surrender.....this meant they could finally go home  but not quite yet...they were in a period of waiting.... The beauty and joy is obvious as they wait for  God to gather up His flock  and gently lead them home.
It was home to rebuild though, to  start again , to put back  what had been destroyed....
Getting back to the destruction that was Jerusalem and its Temple was going to be hard and they remembered that even as they rejoiced.
And that is I think what Advent is about.....its getting ready for the Christ child and to be led into a new place both  of beauty and hard work.  The poem written by Rowan Williams on Advent  is one I enjoy.

He will come like last years leaf fall

One night when the November wind

Has flayed the trees to bone, and earth

wakes choking on the mould

the soft shroud’s folding

He will come, will come

Will come like crying in the night

Like blood, like breaking

As the earth writhes to toss him free

He will come like child.