The Prophet Isaiah speaks of a stump, something cut down and assumed to be finished, yet chosen by God as the place where new life begins. This week's homily explores the stumps we carry in our own lives, the places that feel lifeless, unresolved, or beyond hope, and the surprising way God chooses to work there. It traces the irony of a Savior promised from a stump whose life ends on a tree that becomes the source of new life for the world. Advent hope grows where we least expect it, often in the very places we thought were finished.