Isaiah 66:10-14 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 66:10-14 on biblegateway.com
Verse 10Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her- Verse 11that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom. Verse 12For thus says the Lord: I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm, and dandled on her knees. Verse 13As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. Verse 14You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bodies shall flourish like the grass; and it shall be known that the hand of the Lord is with his servants, and his indignation is against his enemies.
Devotion
A part of our Puritan inheritance is a certain discomfort with scriptural images that are in some way, well, earthy. We seem to prefer a somewhat more austere, remote, celestial God. We should remember that Christ did not come to us in some sterile form of the flesh. Christ came in the actual flesh; suckled, dirty and prone to getting a little noisome in the absence of the modern hygiene we have all become so accustomed to and even dependent on. The God, who came to us in the Christ, knows of the richness, the passion and the dirt which is part and parcel with creation. From the cradle to the grave He has accompanied us along the way, redeeming and saving not just the nobler parts of this life, but all of it because we still have to live amidst it as we await our promised tomorrow.
Prayer
God of the lush and fertile creation, give us the sight to find you in the low places, the gutters and the alleyways of this world. If we cannot find you there, it will not matter that we can find you in peace and security. Amen.