June 24, 2007
Background Scripture: Isaiah 55:1-11
Devotional Reading: 2 Corinthians 9:10-15
In 13-year-old Anne Frank’s diary on Feb. 12, 1944, she wrote about a something within her that she could not identify: “I believe that it is spring within me, I feel that spring is awakening, I feel it in my whole body and soul … I am utterly confused, I only know that I am longing.”
It was H.G. Wells who spoke of the “God-shaped blank” that exists in the hearts of all people.
In every life there is a void that God alone can fill. We may not be aware of that void, yet all of us consciously or unconsciously go through life trying to fill it.
In their book, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott write: “There is in all of us, at the very center of our lives, a tension, an aching, a burning in the heart that is deep and insatiable. Most often it is a longing without a clear name or focus, an aching that can not be clearly pinpointed or described.”
To fill the emptiness
Whether we are aware or unaware of that void, all lives are dominated by that urge to fill it with food, drink, drugs, sex, things, power and ego. But that void can be a bottomless pit – nothing seems able to fill the emptiness. Thus, Isaiah challenges us: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (55:2).
St. Augustine discovered for himself that there is but one thing to fill that void: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart of man is restless until we find our rest in Thee.” And this was the new deal, the new covenant that Isaiah was offering to the Jewish exiles in Babylon: “Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money. Come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (55:1).
This is an invitation to the hungry and thirsty – and, of course, all of us are hungry and thirsty.
Further, it is a free banquet to which He invites us. It is ironic that many of us shell out so much in money, energy, time and integrity to fill our God-shaped blank.
Isaiah uses basic life-giving elements – water, wine, milk, bread – representing the new covenantal relationship. In both the Old and New Testaments, sitting down at a table is symbolic of our new relationship with God, as we are reminded every time we come to the Lord’s Supper.
Incredible grace God’s gracious gift doesn’t cost us anything, although it does require something of us: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon” (55:6,7).
If this seems incredible, that is because it is incredible. But it is incredible only to the human mind: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”
And here is the life-giving assurance that all of us seek in some way: Ultimately, God’s purposes cannot be thwarted. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout … so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (15:10-12).
By that promise, we can stop running on “empty” and “go out with joy, and be led forth in peace” (15:12).
This farm news was published in the June 20, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
