Isaiah 55:10-13 – For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (NRSV)
The way we understand our faith and the way we understand the world are strongly influenced by the way we see God. Who is God for you? How was your vision of God formed? Some people go through life wracked by guilt and fear, because they were taught as young children that God was an angry score-keeper, just waiting up in heaven for them to mess up.
Some people go through horrible trauma before they’ve had a chance to form a healthy understanding of God and end up thinking of God as a callous, capricious ghost who toys with humanity like a kitten with a helpless baby bird. You could find support for both of these portraits in scripture if you wanted to. And you can imagine how people convinced of such ideas might interact with the world.
But neither of those caricatures describes the God I know. Instead, I see God’s true nature revealed in these verses from Isaiah 55. God does not wish punishment upon us, or suffering, or meaninglessness. God wants us to have eternal joy and peace. God wants us to have daily bread. And not just us, for these words were not sent to me in a sealed, confidential envelope; God wants these gifts for all people. And God’s Spirit is alive and moving in the world, pouring out grace, just as the rain waters the earth, not just because, but with a transformative, nourishing purpose. That is the God I know through Jesus Christ, and I view all scriptural images of God through the lens of that truth.
How does such a conviction affect the way we live our lives? How does it help us deal with the day-to-day hassles that arise in our lives, or respond to the tragic suffering of something like the Haitian earthquake? How does it shape how we teach our children about God? Our beliefs about God matter, because through our behavior, they create the world we live in.
Collect for the Week: God of Eternal Compassion, who sends rain and sun to all your children to nourish us and give us life, grant that your grace and love might take hold in our hearts, that we might indeed be living witnesses to your joy and peace. Through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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