Christmas is the time of year for sending messages. That's why the postal service estimates some five billion Christmas cards and letters will be mailed in the next few weeks. By anyone's standard, that's a lot of money, time and trouble invested in sending a message of good news to friends and family.

But messages are important, and for many of us, Christmas is the only time in the year when we hear from old and distant friends. Christmas is a time when God sends a message to the world as well, and these words from Isaiah bring us a message from the Lord that we long to hear. This ancient prophet was called upon to be God's message-bearer to a people who had lived in despair and misery as captives of the Babylonians. The Hebrews were a despised people, displaced persons who lived in a worl…