Please read the passage before reading the commentary
Today is six months before Christmas. According to Luke’s chronology, Jesus was born six months after John the Baptist’s birth (Luke 1:36-37). The prophet Isaiah sums up how God chooses prophets whether they be Isaiah, John the Baptist, or us.
God calls us into existence because God has a task for us to do. It is not by accident that we are conceived and born; it is intentional that God calls us into existence. Isaiah describes how carefully God has made each one of us, as carefully as one would make an arrow in its exact proportions for its proper use. God fashions each of us for the task we are called to do.
Isaiah had to proclaim God’s word at a time when people did not want to hear it. John the Baptist was to prepare the way for the Lord. God teaches us what we must do and provides the training, knowledge, love, and strength to do it.
Isaiah had not toiled in vain; he may have thought that at times, but his work was fruitful. John the Baptist questioned his mission but continued to work it. God always sees us as valued because God made us valuable. God’s plans for us are plans of success, not of grief. May God reveal to each of us how we are to be light to the nations so that God’s salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.