As A Child
Are you listening?
What sign do we seek to let us know we are being heard?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. - Isaiah 7:14-15
In today's reading, we have a prophesy of the coming of the Lord. You could say it is a sign that God is listening to us.
But you could ask, why? Why would God go to such an extreme, to come to live among us as one of us? And why would He choose to become a child?
Isaiah tells us the child will learn how to tell good from evil. Perhaps this is a message for all of us, that we must be open to learning the truth, and not just assume God will tell us directly what we need to know.
Jesus will later make a point of coming to God as a child, so the message may be one of openness and innocence. Can we be open to God's presence, even when it is not clearly visible to us?
Can we be innocent without seeming naive and foolish?
How often do you find yourself wondering if God truly hears you? And when we look around at all the suffering in the world, how easy is it to question His presence?
All of us have a ministry. It is our calling to be out in the world among those for whom God's presence is not as clear as it is for us, even if for us it is murky and uncertain.
That, I think, is the lesson in the reading today. Before the child knew for certain, he would feast on the good things, the gifts of God, the beauty of this life.
So, before any of us sees and hears God, we will know He is with us. Immanuel.
We will begin to reap the benefits of His love, before we know He is there.
How wonderful is that? Now that is a message I can share with those I am called to be among. Those who see murkiness and darkness can hear that the Word is there, if only in a whisper, and that God is with them, if only as a gentle breeze.
We will not have the answers people seek from God. Only He will have them. But we can be with them while they listen. And before they know, they will receive the benefits of His love.
More to come...