WISE MAGI is an acronym for Winters Invitation Seashells Epiphany Making A Giving Intents&tea!
This is Part 1 of 3 where I will share the meaning of Winters Invitation.
Winter is a beautiful word that means "time of waters" because of the abundance of rain and snow that falls inside this season. Winter is a time of quiet when the forest finds animals asleep and trees bare of their foliage. The ground is cold and hard. Winter is a time of rest and trust.
Winter has been my favorite of the 4 seasons my entire life. Most assuredly this is so because of Christmas, the promise of a new year, followed one month later by my birthday, and snow--or at least, the hope of snow! Because of the quiet, calm, long nights, candles seem to come alive in the wintertime, and sitting by a fire when the air is crisp, whether that fire be inside or outside, makes the glow go way down deep.
Winter is also often depicted as harsh, bitter, lonely, sorrowful. Winter in this frame can reflect difficult and barren times in our lives. Cold, wet, dreary. Sometimes candlelight and the glow of a fire are hard to come by, and winter in that light can crush the very soul from which we were meant to live.
So what is Winters Invitation? The answer is Isaiah 55, which holds 13 of the most beautiful verses in all the Bible, from my perspective. Listen as I read them to you!
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
To live in the beauty and joy and hope and promise of every precious word of Isaiah 55, no matter how cold, how long, how harsh, how bitter, may be the winter. To believe with everything in you "instead of the thornbush will grow the Juniper....." that is Winters Invitation!
Remember & Rejoice! We are Anointed & Sent! For Such A Time As This!
Share Good News! Of Great Joy! With All People!
