The women had only heard the Isaiah prophecy once when they were asked to name a word or phrase that caught their attention in the “Word I Heard” activity. I was amazed at the range of responses they offered. They are printed on colored cards, pictured below with their “illustrated manuscripts.”

The skill of paying attention facilitates both prayer and storylearning. The “Word I Heard” cards and illustrated manuscripts provide evidence of how well the women in Circle paid attention, both to the prophecy and to the reading about how it would have sounded to original audiences 2700 and 2000 years ago.

For example, the first graphic below includes an illustration of God calling light into being, out of darkness, from the first creation story in Genesis. That detail was included in our reading handout “Listening to the Story” as one association for darkness/light of people listening to the story long ago (the other association being oppression/king-who-ends-oppression).

The second graphic includes the boots and bloody garments being burned “as fuel for the fire.” It as shows names for the new king, interpreted as baby Jesus. Our handout mentioned how the original audience heard this prophecy as a celebration for the coronation of a king, while early Christians heard it as being about another “anointed one”: the Christ child.