O Come, Desire of Nations

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Let us pause this Advent and echo the ancient pleas of the apostle and the revelator, for the sure hope of the shalom expressed by the visionaries and seers to be realized at his soon return:

Maranatha!

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

From Isaiah 65:

¹⁷ "See, I will create
       new heavens and a new earth.
       The former things will not be remembered,
       nor will they come to mind.

¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
       in what I will create,
       for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
       and its people a joy.

¹⁹ I will rejoice over Jerusalem
       and take delight in my people;
       the sound of weeping and of crying
       will be heard in it no more.

²⁰ "Never again will there be in it
       infants who live but a few days,
       or older people who do not live out their years;
       those who die at a hundred
       will be thought mere youths;
       those who fail to reach ^[a] a hundred
       will be considered accursed.

²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them;
       they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²² No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
       or plant and others eat.
       For as the days of a tree,
       so will be the days of my people;
       my chosen ones will long enjoy
       the work of their hands.

²³ They will not labor in vain,
       nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
       for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
       they and their descendants with them.

²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
       while they are still speaking I will hear.

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
       and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
       but dust will be the serpent's food.
       They will neither harm nor destroy
       on all my holy mountain,"
       says the LORD.

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