The Advent Scripture passage for Day 5 was Isaiah 11:1-10.

Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him-
a Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a Spirit of counsel and strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge
by what He sees with His eyes,
He will not execute justice
by what He hears with His ears,
but He will judge the poor righteously
and execute justice for the oppressed of the land.
He will strike the land
with discipline from His mouth,
and He will kill the wicked
with a command from His lips.
Righteousness will be a belt around His loins;
faithfulness will be a belt around His waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the goat.
The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together,
and a child will lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze,
their young ones will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit,
and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.
None will harm or destroy [another]
on My entire holy mountain,
for the land will be as full
of the knowledge of the Lord
as the sea is filled with water.
On that day the root of Jesse
will stand as a banner for the peoples.
The nations will seek Him,
and His resting place will be glorious.

If you happen to walk up our sidewalk and knock on our front door tomorrow, little footprints in blue, yellow, green and red will greet you on the way.

Today for our Christmas family activity, we made footprint/handprint reindeer. Since it was sunny and relatively warm, we went outside to do the footprints so we wouldn’t make a mess in the house. The kids had so much fun smooshing the paint between their toes, I let them make footprints all over the porch and sidewalk (gotta love washable fingerprint).

As we stomped, jumped and ran all over the concrete, we talked about the promised Messiah, and how his coming is worth sharing. God considers feet beautiful that carry the good news, and the footprints all around us reminded me that the blessing of Christmas isn’t to be kept to ourselves. The prophets weren’t silent in their proclamations of the Messiah, as in our Scripture today, and we shouldn’t be either.