A WORD FOR TODAY, March 16, 2021
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, March 16, 2021
“Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places, though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely. Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.” Isaiah 32:16-20, WEB
Our son moved out about a month ago and we are converting his old bedroom into an office for my husband. Part of this move means rearranging furniture in other places. A desk is being moved from my office space. The drawers in that desk needed to be cleaned, and now there is a box full of items that need a new home in our house. Bookshelves need to be emptied and moved. The paperwork in a filing cabinet needed to be sorted so that I can shred the old, unnecessary files (why did I still have tax paperwork from 1997?) It seems like every day I have made huge messes to bring order to this process.
Isn’t that the way it is, though? I remember cleaning my children’s rooms when they were young, especially when it was time to purge the toy box. We always dumped the box on the floor, the put back the good toys and got rid of the old and broken ones. It was frustrating to see the room look like a tornado went through, even if it was for a brief moment, but then it was wonderful to have everything organized in place, better than it had been. Sometimes we make a mess to make things right.
We look at our lives and everything looks fine, but we know there are things that need to change. This is what Lent is all about, isn’t it? Lent is a time for us to consider our lives and our actions, to repent of our sins so that we can be transformed by the grace of God. Unfortunately, like that toy box in our kids rooms, that repentance often becomes a mess. The light shining on our failure makes everything look out of control. We are frustrated because we thought it would be easy to just pick out something small to make things better, but the reality is stark and clear: there’s a lot wrong with us. We work on that one thing and realize that there are a dozen hidden problems that need to be fixed.
Isaiah 32 is a prophecy of Jesus Christ. Hezekiah is the king about whom the prophecy is directly given, but it is ultimately about the Messiah to come in the future. The king and those who serve under him, will bring abundant blessings to the kingdom. Those blessings, those good things, that Light, would also shine upon everything that is not good, too. The prophecy warned that the nation would struggle because of their sins. Eventually they would be conquered and taken into captivity. This took years, and multiple kings, to come to pass, but Isaiah warned them not to become complacent. Eventually they would be restored, but it would take the chaos of the exile to make things right between God and His people again.
As we draw ever nearer to the week of our Lord’s Passion, we are daily reminded of our own sinfulness and the chaos of the cross. It can feel like God has dumped our lives on the floor and is picking out the good things to put back in. Meanwhile, He’s also finding the old and broken things that need to go. He’s finding the unnecessary things that need to be shredded. He’s finding parts of our lives that need to be emptied and moved. In the end, through the cross, He will make all things right. Though the world around us may seem like it is being destroyed, God has promised that we’ll dwell in peace and safety, in a quiet resting place. That resting place is Jesus. So, let us let go as God puts order to the chaos, cleansing us with His mercy and grace.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org.
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