7 December 2015 - deserting the desert

[ Today's Readings ]

The desert and the parched land will exult;
the steppe will rejoice and bloom.
They will bloom with abundant flowers,
and rejoice with joyful song.

How long have we been living in a desert? A desert is so dry and arid that life struggles to survive. Just to exist is all the most can manage. Isn't it wonderful that this desert will bloom? God promises it will. This promise should allow us to "Strengthen the hands that are feeble" and to "make firm the knees that are weak". Fear for survival gives ways to longing for the coming of our God. 

Be strong, fear not!
Here is your God,
he comes with vindication;
With divine recompense
he comes to save you.

Divine recompense is worth infinitely more than the suffering and hardships that precede it. The natural absence of life gives way to a supernatural abundance. Suffering gives way to healing.

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
Then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.

This is what the men that brought their friend on a stretcher for healing know. They are willing to be awkward, to sacrifice, and to make hard choices. Their feeble hands are strengthened and their weak knees are made firm because they see Jesus and sense Isaiah saying, "Here is your God". They see Jesus and realize that "the power of the Lord was with him for healing." If we can realize the same things then nothing can keep us from Jesus. We hear the psalmist say, "Our God will come to save us!" and we rise to meet him. Jesus himself will clear the obstacles that prevent us from following him.

A highway will be there,
called the holy way;
No one unclean may pass over it,
nor fools go astray on it.
No lion will be there,
nor beast of prey go up to be met upon it.
It is for those with a journey to make,
and on it the redeemed will walk.

We need to believe that Jesus can save us. We need to believe he wants to. We need to believe it because the temptation is to sit wounded and thirsty in the lives we've created for ourselves. We are free to ignore Jesus if we aren't really interested. We need, rather, to be as interested as the crippled man's friends. We need to be just as motivated to get our hearts and the hearts of our loved ones before him as that man's friends. If we want him, Jesus will make sure, we get him and receive all that he has for us. Come on then. We've been in the desert too long. 

Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return
and enter Zion singing,
crowned with everlasting joy;
They will meet with joy and gladness,
sorrow and mourning will flee.