Fading Flowers

At my daughter's recent 16th birthday party, I gave a small devotion on the topic of
"time" and the brevity of life, taken from Psalm 90 and Genesis 47, which we read for our Call
to Worship and first Scripture reading, respectively. For this morning, I want to build on that
theme, by considering with you, some of the important thoughts given to us in the text we just
read, here at the beginning of Isaiah 40.
To be sure, Isaiah 40 is one of those prophetic texts that contains a double application,
first for the Israelites who had been exiled by the Babylonians, and then for those who were
called to repentance by John the Baptist, in preparation for the coming Messiah. We will tap into
both of these historical contexts, as we seek to draw out critical and relevant applications for us.