Hope Past Hope's Conceiving - Day 3
Isaiah 35:1-7, 10
35 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
“Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes….
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
The news is full of hopeless situations as a record number of people have been displaced by war, famine, economic crisis, ecological disaster and forced dislocation. Approximately 26 million people around the world are refugees, and one-third of a million children each year are born to parents who are refugees. They dream of a place to find home. And we weep with them in their dislocation and rootlessness.
For people that are rootless and homeless, who have no place of belonging, the thought of having a home – a place to belong is almost unimaginable. When people have lived two or three or more generations as displaced people, going home is a miracle that is beyond the possible. As unimaginable, as impossible, as a desert being filled with flowers; as streams of water flowing over parched land; as ground thirsty for water becoming a spring of water.
But vs. 10 says a day is coming when the exile will come home, when the refugee will find a home, when the displaced people will have a stable place. What joy and celebration that day will be – for joy and gladness will replace sorrow and sighing. The day is coming when the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk, and the speechless will shout for joy – the day when the impossible is realized and our deepest hopes come true.
Towards that day we point, a day that is coming not by human strength, not by human planning but by the in-breaking of God – Christ will come again. And while that day is future, we live our lives towards that goal – and we invite others to lift up their eyes to see the hope that will flood our dry and thirsty world.
PRAYER:
Lord God, our world is dry and thirsty, desperate for hope, desperate for safety and security, desperate to be at home. You have promised to do the unimaginable, to bring a hope into being that is greater than anything we could imagine. We pray for that day, we hope for that day, we live in expectation of that day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.