Variety: Isaiah 9v6

For a child has been born for us, 
   a son given to us; 
authority rests upon his shoulders, 
   and he is named 
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, 
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace  Isaiah 9:6

Allowing ourselves time to stop and wonder is a beautiful but tricky thing to do. Pausing long enough to rediscover the wonder of the Christmas story can be hard, but is, non the less, rewarding.

Isaiah 9 invites us to pause and consider how Jesus, the greatest of all wonders, arrived in the smallest of all packages. His arrival, and every subsequent aspect of his life, death, and resurrection, caused those who encountered him to wonder. Today, we can celebrate that this wonderful news was just what we needed and remains just what we need.

We should recognise that Isaiah doesn’t use the word ‘wonderful’ quite how we often use it. We might use it this month to describe a meal or present, for example. To be honest, sometimes the word ‘wonderful’ is chosen just to be kind, whether it’s a fitting description of our emotions or not!

‘Wonderful’, in Isaiah 9, is more specific. It conveys a genuine sense of new amazement – an experience that causes us to think, ‘Wow!’ – pointing to something beyond our grasp or understanding. A miracle. This anticipated child, born to us, is genuinely wonderful, in all these senses. Jesus’ arrival isn’t just a wonderful piece of news, it is the wonderful news.

The key reason this news is quite so wonderful is that, without it, the outlook was so bleak. The preceding eight chapters of Isaiah have occasional bright spots, but more significantly set out how bad things are and could be – how God’s people have ignored him and his instructions and that there are consequences for doing so.

Against this backdrop, when we turn to Isaiah 9, we feel the desperate need for good news. This son, with the government on his shoulders, provides it. We celebrate the light coming at Christmas, and this news is all the more wonderful because the light comes in particular to those in deep darkness.

Darkness takes many forms. Whatever it looks like for you, the small wonder of the infant Jesus still makes a difference to us and the places we find ourselves in today. Whatever we’re facing, we can call on the Wonderful Counsellor.

Ken Benjamin