Imago Adventus - 11 - Scarlet

Joshua 2: 1-21 Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove. He instructed them, “ Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho.” So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night. . . .Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them. “I know the LORD has given you this land,” she told them. . . . “For the LORD your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. “Now swear to me by the LORD that you will be kind to me and my family since I have helped you. Give me some guarantee that when Jericho is conquered, you will let me live, along with my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all their families.” . . . Before they left, the men told her . . . “When we come into the land, you must leave this scarlet rope hanging from the window through which you let us down . And all your family members —your father, mother, brothers, and all your relatives —must be here inside the house. . . .” “I accept your terms,” she replied. And she sent them on their way, leaving the scarlet rope hanging from the window.

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Last night we had a wonderful concert at church of Advent and Christmas music - it was uplifting and beautiful. One of the special instruments we had was a harp that I thought lent itself to some interesting pictures before the concert. As I was taking the pictures, I discovered that one of the strings on the harp was red. I don’t know why, but it was. I didn’t think much of it other than capturing it in the picture simply because it was “different.” Well, this morning, I read the devotion in Voskamp’s book that talked about the scarlet rope that Rahab let down to denote her home as protection. This is not unlike the blood on the doorposts of the homes of the Hebrews in Egypt before the Exodus - a marking of who God’s people were to keep them safe. And here, we have a woman and her family who are not part of the Jewish nation who are marked by red once again to be rescued from what was to come.

The string on the harp is not noticeable unless one is looking closely or is trying to find it - like the armies of Israel would be doing. I wonder about how that connects to our faith lives - God has laid out a life line for us and there are many times that we choose to not look to find it or simply don’t notice it amongst all the other clutter of our lives.

Advent is a season for us to consciously be sure we are looking for that life line in our lives. God has laid it out for us…let’s find it and follow it.