We tend to think of growth as a straight line—upward, onward, done. But the prophets of Israel knew better. Their books, read together, trace something closer to a spiral: naming what’s broken, feeling its weight, and finding a way back to life on the other side. Not accusation, punishment, and renewal as courtroom terms, but as the shape of how anything—a person, a people, a planet—actually changes. In this series, we'll walk through the book of Isaiah as a map for that spiral, exploring how this same re-ordering movement can re-order us: naming what's true, grieving what's gone wrong, and rising into something more whole.
This week we arrive at renewal and ask why growth so often begins with an ending. Jesus’ two great images, the way of the cross and the way of the child, turn out to describe one path, a “yes” to whatever arises that opens us to wonder, play, and new life.