Isaiah 50:4-9a (NRSV)
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Verse 4The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. Verse 5The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. Verse 6I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. Verse 7The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; Verse 8he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. Verse 9It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Devotion
I am a chaplain working with older adults in a long-term care facility. I learn how to be a child of God from these dear people. We may lose our memory, ability to walk, or our capacity to see, but we never lose our God-given essence. The prophet Isaiah affirms God’s desire to never let us go. Mildred’s memory loss caused her to fade from us for the last eight years of her life. Toward the end of her life Mildred rarely spoke a word. As she lay dying, I reminded Mildred that Jesus loved her and was holding her. It was as though Mildred became Lazarus for a moment. With engaged eyes and great clarity Mildred turned to me and proclaimed “…and Jesus loves all the world.” There is a part of us that is intimately woven into the fabric of God and cannot be snatched away. As lost as we may feel, we are never lost to God or separated from the essence of who God created us to be.
Prayer
Loving Lord Jesus, you are intimately woven into the fiber of who we are. Thank you for a love that has no bounds, for a love that remembers when we forget and a love that keeps a hold of us even when we are lost. Amen.