Advent Devotional

Isaiah 12:1-6

The prophet Isaiah concludes the first section of his book with two short hymns of thanksgiving contained in these six verses. Isaiah affirms that God is our strength and salvation. We need not fear. Let us sing praises to God and be joyful.

There are those whose lives demonstrate the power of Isaiah’s words. My Aunt Helen Turlington, whose funeral I attended on October 18th, was one.

As a little girl Aunt Helen heard about Lottie Moon, the famous Southern Baptist missionary to China, and she knew God was calling her to be a missionary like Lottie Moon. In 1947, with two young sons and a two-month-old daughter, she and her husband boarded a converted navy ship for their first mission to China. Their work was cut short by the Chinese Revolution, but later they returned to the mission field, serving in Tehran, India, Japan, and the Philippines.

Aunt Helen was a teacher, social worker, preacher, wife and mother. She led an interfaith council. Micah 6:8 was her favorite Bible verse: And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

For us, as for Aunt Helen, there is assurance in knowing that God is our strength and salvation. We can answer the call, wherever it leads, with confidence and joy.

PRAYER (excerpt from the benediction Aunt Helen chose for her service):

May God give you grace never to sell yourself short;
Grace to risk something big for something good;
Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth
And too small for anything but love.

So may God take your minds and think through them.
May God take your lips and speak through them.
May God take your hearts and set them on fire.

-William Sloane Coffin

Bobbie Wrenn Banks