10/7/21

 Everlasting joy will be upon their heads

             Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

            Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.  For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. 

                A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 35:3-10

             

                This was written to the children of Israel who were about to go into exile, taken from their homeland and forced to live out their days on foreign soil.  Every day would be a struggle and no matter how well they adapted to life outside, it would never feel right…never feel complete…never feel like home.

            That sums up our lives here on earth.  Even after hundreds of generations, humanity still lives in exile, making due in a place that is not our home.  We see it as we read the news and watch people interact with each other.  We feel it as we encounter broken relationships and loss and death.  We know that this world is broken and we are broken.  We walk around with an ache that we did not create, looking for remedies that will fill the hole that we did not dig.  We look around at our lives, even when things are going beautifully, and we wonder, “Is this all?  Are we not made for more than this?”

            We look at our children…our beautiful, broken children and wonder how they are supposed to fit into this world that does not care for them the way that it should.  I was just talking to my daughter about her brother tonight and she said, off-handedly, “He is too good for this world.”  Yes.  Yes, he is.  Because he was not created to be here.  He has been created for eternity, an eternity that is free of predators and free of disabilities…an eternity that is free of isolation and doubt and confusion and pain…an eternity that is filled with “everlasting joy that shall be upon their heads.”  An eternity where “they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”  That is what they were made for.  That is what we were made for and that is what we will enter into together if we follow Jesus.

            We live in exile.  We live in a world that was never intended to be our home.  Someday…someday soon we will get to go home.  And we will meet our friends.  And we will meet our family.  And we will meet our children in their true state.  And we will meet our God.  And we will finally be complete.  We will know what it means to be home.  And we will finally reside in a place that is worthy of our children.

            And everlasting joy will be upon our heads.

             

A moment to reflect:

How does this world seem foreign to you?