Goodness of the Peaceful Kingdom

Goodness of the Peaceful Kingdom

 

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
   and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
   the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
   the spirit of counsel and might,
   the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
   or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
   and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
   and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
   and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
   the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
   and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
   their young shall lie down together;
   and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
   and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
   as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious

                                                     Isaiah 11:1-10

I chose this passage when asked to talk to the theme of ‘The Good’ because it has always been such satisfying and hopeful imagery to me.

A restoration of the natural order? A renewal of how God arranged creatures to be, in peace rather than enmity with each other?

Echoing God’s words at creation? It is GOOD!

The knowledge of the Lord to see things as He sees them...as good, right, and restored because He came to make it so.

My love of the natural world means I long to see restoration, and the renewal of the goodness of the peaceful kingdom, and my profession as a visual artist means I try to see that now, in my sketchbook at least.

My habit of using a sketchbook, as a meditation and a practice, is a way of seeing God’s goodness in the everyday and observe or imagine what that could look like.

Thank you, Jesus, for being that tender shoot for hope and restoration.

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This artwork was painted as a spread in my current A4 sketchbook, using gouache (an opaque watercolour paint) over a pre-prepared under layer of orange acrylic wash. Just a sketched literal illustration of what the passage describes.

Deb Mostert’s contemporary art practice is 30 years young and involves drawing, painting, sculpture, and public art. Her work has been built around the search for collected personal objects, a love of natural history, and curated public museum collections which can become quirky and crisp conversations around memory, collection, curation, and value. Her daily habit of drawing in a sketchbook feeds her practice.

This devotional is the tenth in a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2022. This year's series reflects on the hope and joy of the good breaking in with the birth of Christ. 

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