Isaiah 11:1-3 

I had given up hope a rose bush planted for my dad would survive the winter. It was hoped he would be home early spring after a long hospitalization.

With the first breath of spring I saw a tiny shoot, a harbinger of hope from the rose bush I thought dead.

“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse…” Who could imagine anything growing as they sat on the stump of utter despair; a place where hope was cut off, where loss and despair had deadened their hearts.

Isaiah poetically inspired hope in the hearts of his people who felt a death sentence of all that had been lost through years of captivity and waiting for their Messiah.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him --

The same Spirit that anointed Jesus dwells within us as we understand that we are newly created in Him for Spirit-dependent living. We are His anointed ones, (1 John 2:27).

Spirit-filled living results as we yield our lives to the Holy Spirit of God. Through us (heirs of salvation,) God accomplishes His plan to bring many sons and daughters to glory. (Hebrews 2:10)

Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So, you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:6-7)

For he grew up before them like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53: 2)

As we recognize His Spirit in displaced and unlovely people, in unexpected places, are a green shoot of hope for those who have none.

 “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm51:11-12)