Chapter Six: Embracing Hope
Entry Sixty-Two: Isaiah 40
What is hope? In my last few entries, I wrote about growth…about strength…about dependence. Today, I meditate on the promises found in the later prophecies of Isaiah…especially the one that speaks of comfort for Zion. God challenges me directly through the sage. To whom will you equate me? He asks. Who is equal to Me? He charges me to look to the creation itself and to be humbled by His mighty power. And then He whispers tenderly…why do you say your path is hidden from Me? Why do you think that I am indifferent to your cause? Do you not understand? Are you unable to comprehend the truth? I am the everlasting God…I am the Creator and Sustainer of all that is…I do not become fatigued or weary. I give strength to the exhausted…I empower the weak.
There it is. He strengthens me…He empowers me…He carries me…He lifts me up so that I may mount up on high along with the eagles. That is hope. I can see that now. Regardless of what my future may hold, He is with me, and that is what gives me purpose. He has a plan for my life, and it is a good one…that is what the weeping prophet says. And if Jeremiah could hold onto that word in the midst of rejection, misunderstanding, persecution, and aggression…then so can I. God is true…He is not a human being that He should stoop to falsehoods and fabrications. And so I will trust Him and not rely on my emotions…my circumstances…my community…the opinions of my son, Aaron, and his rabbi. Human beings are like grass…their glory like the flowers in the fields. It is only God’s Word that remains constant.
And so my eyes scan the road Benjamin will take when he returns…if he returns. For whether he returns or does not return, God remains faithful, good, and true.
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