Day 1: The Center of the Universe

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

Prophets are usually notorious for saying things that don't seem to add up at the time. They tell things about what God is planning, and from the front, human perspective (which is usually very short sighted) it seems that God's plan is somewhat unreasonable and impossible, sometimes even ridiculous. But here, in this chapter and section of Isaiah, he speaks in a way that seems immediate. Isaiah is obviously speaking about the birth of Jesus, but he doesn't do it in a "prophetic way". He does it in a "this has already happened and this is what our hope is set on" type of manner.

When I was a young boy, I went to a house party with my parents and my best friend, at the time, Chris. This house had a trampoline that we were eager to jump on. This would have been my first time to experience such amazing heights. My dad set some rules and the most important of the rules was "if someone else wants on, you two get off and let them on." Simple enough. My friend didn't listen to it, however, and stayed on the trampoline when two other kids came over. I got off, but problems arose. The night ended abruptly with a bloodied nose and some very scary memories. How did my dad know? Did he experience something I didn't know about?

Still to this day I don't know how my dad knew something like that would happen. Maybe he didn't know, but he had a different perspective than we had. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:8 God's perspective is far greater than my dad's perspective, it's greater than the perspective of the government or any higher up. In fact, "the government shall be upon his shoulders:" indicates that He controls even the highest of authority. Christ is central to the whole existence of the universe and it's with that knowledge that we can be comforted when everything else around us fails. We stand assured that Christ has control.