Baruch 5:1-9
1 Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
2 Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting,
3 for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven,
4 for God will give you evermore the name,
“Righteous Peace, Godly Glory.”
5 Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
look toward the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that God has remembered them.
6 For they went out from you on foot,
led away by their enemies,
but God will bring them back to you,
carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
7 For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
8 The woods and every fragrant tree
have shaded Israel at God’s command.
9 For God will lead Israel with joy,
in the light of his glory,
with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.
Devotion
In the northern hemisphere, the night creeps up on us earlier during Advent and continues to grow longer until the winter solstice. Even as we prepare for the coming joy of Christmas and anticipate the good, we also find ourselves contemplating what and who is missing from our lives. This can be both a beautiful and difficult time of year. Yet, we are never without hope and the promise of goodness. In Baruch 5:4 we read, “For God will give you evermore the name, ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory.’” When the night feels too long and the joy of the season seems out of reach, we can always turn to God’s peace.
Prayer
Divine Love, gift us with peace, joy, hope, beauty, and goodness. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Interested in digging deeper into today’s text?
Read more here.