Reviving the spirit of the lowly

Here's the good news of the day, friends. The prophet wrote this: "The one who is high and lifted up, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says: I live on high, in holiness, and also with the crushed and the lowly, reviving the spirit of the lowly, reviving the heart of those who have been crushed."

Take a sweet moment to examine that. God lives on high, lifted up, in holiness. That's acceptable to any who are not atheist, I imagine. Anyone who believes in a creator believes, I imagine, in one who is on high. Separate. Different. Other. That's the definition, isn't it?

But here's where the good news comes roaring in like water from a broken dam. Our God is three in nature. Our God came to live with the lowly, reviving the spirit of that same lowly folk, reviving my dead old crushed heart. He came to live with us, love on us, give us a sense of worth that would not exist without him.

Look, the Old Testament is a story of frustrated hope. We start by living with God in the garden, and we blow that fairly quickly, being who we are. But God refuses to give up on us, and he promises a deliverer would come to rescue all those of us who have been crushed.

The age-old story is one of redemption, of hope, of love that runs red at the cross, because the frustrated hope, the promise given, is fulfilled in a man named Jesus.

This morning, as the clouds drift in and the day becomes long, let us remember that things never get out of reach to God. The problems we find ourselves with, the bills that collect around us like so many dead trees, the physical issues we discover as we grow older, all are whisked away with his love. God tells Isaiah, "I have seen their ways, but I will heal them. I will guide them, and reward them with comfort. And for those who mourn, I will create reason for praise: utter prosperity to those far and near, and I will heal them..."

I can't speak for everyone, wouldn't if I could, but that seems to me to be a pretty good deal. He (HE NOT US) will create reason for praise.

I don't need prosperity as much as I need to know I'm loved. I see that in scripture far, far more than I find answers to questions I run headlong into constantly. While we fuss and fight about the big ticket items like homosexuality and abortion and this and that (not minimizing them), the bigger thing is we are loved by the one who created us even while we're busy disappointing him. That's just the way it is.

He has seen our ways and he will heal us anyway.

That's love.