Have you ever gotten gum in your hair? It’s awful! You can’t get it out. Once it’s there, it’s stuck. That’s how God’s people felt. Back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had made a terrible choice. They had disobeyed God and chosen their own ways over God’s ways. That let sin into the world and now it was stuck in the world’s hair like icky, sticky, yucky gum. But God had a plan for how to help His children. He knew their hearts were full of the grossness on the inside, and they needed to be cleaned. God was going to send a Rescuer. This wouldn’t just be another prophet. He would be THE Rescuer.

God spoke to one of His special prophets. His name was Isaiah. God told Isaiah to give His people hints about what He was planning to do. But He wanted them to trust Him and have faith. He could have just told everyone His name and the year He would be born and even carved a picture of His face into the side of the mountain. But just like we believe in what God did all those years ago, His people needed to believe in what He was planning to do in the future. So Isaiah gave God’s people a sneak peek, like a movie trailer, of what was going to happen.

He told them…You are like sheep. You can’t take care of yourselves. You need a shepherd to guide you and make sure you don’t get lost or hurt. Right now your heart is like a white shirt that is covered in blood and grass stains and mud and mold and slime all mixed together. You can’t get it out. But I can. Soon, I will wash it until it looks like new. One day, every person on earth will worship Me and know that I am God.

A Rescuer is coming! He will be amazing! He will save us from our sins and clean out our hearts. His name will mean “God-With-Us.” He will also be called The Advice-Giver, Mighty God, Forever-Father, Prince of Peace, Forever King and Best Counselor. He will be powerful forever and give us peace for all time. He will be an honest and fair ruler.

He will have a kingdom, but not the kind of kingdom we normally think of. It won’t be a part of this world. It will be something beyond our wildest dreams!

In His kingdom, fierce creatures will snuggle with small animals. You won’t believe your eyes when you see leopards lying down next to young goats, wolves resting with lambs, cows and bears eating grass next to each other. You will even see baby cows playing with lions…and little children will be taking care of them. You won’t have to be afraid of snakes or any other poisonous animals. No one will every fall down and get a scrape. No one will ever break their arm. No one will ever chip a tooth. No one will ever get made fun of and most of all…no one will ever die!

But having a kingdom like this won’t be free. It will cost more than any person could ever pay for it. The only way to have this kind of peace is by terrible things happening to the Rescuer. He will be treated terribly and called a ‘nobody.’ He will take the punishment that we deserve for all the bad things we do and mean thoughts we think. He is willing to do this because He loves us so much and wants us to live forever with Him in His kingdom.

Can you guess who He is?

Jesus!

Just like people in Isaiah’s time couldn’t understand exactly what he was talking about, we may sometimes not understand things we read in the Bible. But we can have faith that God has a plan for us, that He wants to rescue us from our sin, and that He loves us very much.