The Kitchen Table
3rd Day of Christmas
Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead! Mountains, send up cheers! God has comforted his people. He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people. But Zion said, “I don’t get it. God has left me. My Master has forgotten I even exist.” “Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore? But even if mothers forget, I’d never forget you—never. Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands. The walls you’re rebuilding are never out of my sight. Your builders are faster than your wreckers. The demolition crews are gone for good. Look up, look around, look well! See them all gathering, coming to you? As sure as I am the living God”—God’s Decree—”you’re going to put them on like so much jewelry, you’re going to use them to dress up like a bride. “And your ruined land? Your devastated, decimated land? Filled with more people than you know what to do with! And your barbarian enemies, a fading memory. The children born in your exile will be saying, ‘It’s getting too crowded here. I need more room.’ And you’ll say to yourself, ‘Where on earth did these children come from? I lost everything, had nothing, was exiled and penniless. So who reared these children? How did these children get here?'” The Master, God, says: “Look! I signal to the nations, I raise my flag to summon the people. Here they’ll come: women carrying your little boys in their arms,
men carrying your little girls on their shoulders. Kings will be your babysitters, princesses will be your nursemaids. They’ll offer to do all your drudge work—scrub your floors, do your laundry. You’ll know then that I am God. No one who hopes in me ever regrets it.” Isaiah 49:13-23
Those who hope in me will never be disappointed. God is telling us that He is worthy of belief and He is the One we are to believe. God is delivering the people of Israel in Isaiah 49 and He is reminding them that He is the reason for their salvation and new life. Just as a mother cannot forget her child so neither can God forget His people. And He is the light (the way) of life and those who believe Him will know and be the light of the world. And, God can restore lives faster than the enemy can destroy them if only we will believe Him. But the choice is ours. Will we believe Him or will we believe in the solutions and strength of man? Those who hope in Jesus will not be disappointed! God promises.
From the Kitchen Table 