This Sunday begins the Advent season.  May our hearts be awakened to the ways of God and our hope in Him be renewed.  Isaiah 2:1-5 stretches our imagination beyond our cynical and pessimistic mindset.  This passage is a ray of light in what is otherwise a bleak and dire picture for the nation of Israel.  They are facing judgment at the hands of Assyria.  Yet it is a sign that God does not abandon His people.  Neither will He desert us and our world today.