Come Down!

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

    that the mountains would tremble before you!
 As when fire sets twigs ablaze
    and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
    and cause the nations to quake before you!

                                                      Isaiah 64:1-2 NIV
                          
I know this prayer from Isaiah. No, I haven't memorized it. But, I know it. From the depths of my heart, I have prayed it on many occasions. And, I have a feeling that I'm probably not alone in having prayed a prayer similar to this one from time to time; when things get rough; when you feel persecuted or alone. Is there anyone among us who has never thought or prayed: "This is enough. Please, make your presence known to all people so the world; the whole world could live in peace already!"

Yet, Isaiah reminds us that we have all become like one who is unclean and all of our righteous deeds are like filthy cloth. It's not just everyone else. We are all guilty and our iniquities; our sins, just as the wind, have taken us away out of God's presence.

But, we're not out of God's presence. He is with us. In spite of the fact that we often do not hear nor do we see the answer, the prayer has been answered. For God did indeed come down to us. The great God Almighty; the creator of heaven and earth, came down to earth to meet humankind right where we are. As we drifted further and further away from God's good will for us, He, Himself, broke open the heavens and came down, as a little child, to be one of us.

The one who formed us with his own hands, who breathed his breath of life into us, took on the form of man in order that he might live with us that we might be reconciled to Him and live whole and abundant lives in Him.

There may be and probably will be days when we will think: "Oh, Lord God, break down the heavens already and come down quickly. Show us your majesty. Show us your greatness. Make the mountains quake so that all of the nations will tremble and fall down to honor you." Then may God bring to your remembrance that He, in fact has already broken through and come down to earth; to us. He assumed the very nature of His created humankind and came down, not to destroy His or our enemies; but, to save us all. He came to reconcile us to Himself and to one another through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

God's Peace – Pr. J