Friday of the First Week of Advent

REFLECTION:

This past week, I visited the students who attended the LifeTeen retreat. I sat with them in confession, listened to their stories, and later joined their parents during the prayer service. In those moments—listening to the hearts of teens and the hearts of parents—I found myself praying for one thing: transformation. Not just a small improvement, not just a gentle nudge… but a dramatic reversal in their lives. A turning of the soil, a new beginning, a fresh way of seeing and hearing God again.



That is exactly the promise in today’s reading from Isaiah. God speaks of a day when Lebanon, known for its forests, will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will become a forest. It’s a poetic way of saying: “Watch what I can do. Watch how I can reverse situations that look impossible.” God specializes in the unexpected. He takes what seems barren and makes it fruitful. He takes what seems finished and brings it to life again. He takes what is broken and transforms it.

Isaiah also speaks of the deaf hearing, the blind seeing, and the humble rejoicing in the Holy One of Israel. That’s not only a promise of physical healing; it’s a promise of spiritual awakening. God can open the ears that have been closed for too long. He can restore sight where we have been blind to His presence. He can give joy where there was fear, hope where there was discouragement, freedom where there was shame.

When I listened to those young people and their parents, I realized how much we all need God’s transforming touch. Every person in that retreat—whether teen or parent—brought something to the Lord: burdens, questions, wounds, hopes. And all of them, in their own way, were asking: “Lord, can You change this? Can You make something new out of this?” Isaiah’s answer is a resounding yes.

God can bring dramatic reversals:

• A heart once closed can open.
• A relationship once strained can breathe again.
• A person lost in shame can rediscover dignity.
• Someone who felt spiritually deaf or blind can suddenly hear His whisper and see His light.

And maybe that is the invitation for us today. Where do we need God’s dramatic reversal? Where is the “Lebanon” in us—the place that seems stuck, dry, or lifeless—and how is God trying to make it a fertile field again?

Isaiah ends with a powerful line: “Those who err in spirit shall come to understanding.”

Meaning: God is not done with us. The story is not over. He can still teach, heal, renew, and transform. If God can turn forests into fields and fields back into forests, imagine what He can do with a heart open to Him.

May this be our prayer today—for our retreat youth, for their parents, and for ourselves:
Lord, bring about a transformation in us. Do what only You can do. Give us the dramatic reversal our hearts long for.

Amen.