This Advent 2A message explores Isaiah’s stunning vision of a world remade in peace—a world where wolves nap beside lambs, children play safely near vipers, and creation remembers the harmony it was made for.

Pastor Alix begins with a chilling story from Howard Thurman: a baby girl gently stroking a rattlesnake while the adults look on in breathless silence. From childhood encounters with Louisiana cottonmouths to the modern fear of “two-legged predators,” the sermon names the anxiety we carry in a world that feels perpetually on alert.

Yet woven throughout are shimmering, real-world moments when a different story breaks through—unlikely friendships between animals, a neighbor offering help on a stairwell, glimpses of tenderness where we least expect them.

Advent invites us to lean toward the world God is bringing to birth: a restored creation, a peace that isn’t fragile, and a God who is already shaping something new.