Thursday, March 3, 2016

Isaiah 42:5-7

Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it: 
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations, 
   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness. 

Smiles

I saw a smiles this week that lit up my heart, eyes sparkling with loving joy that tap a fountain of tears in my soul. It had been too long since I felt that light and tasted those tears.

Those smiles awakened life in me, reminding me that you, Holy One, are alive in me. You are those tears and the light that sets me free from dark drudgery when worry and too many details weigh my heart.

I see what I am and who I am to be in the smiles that lifted me. I saw you smiling in their eyes, and felt how hungry you are to be the light that burns brightly in my soul and lights up rooms when I enter.

I am a vessel of your life sent to be a light to those in the dungeons of doubt and despair, guilt and shame, worry and sadness. You send us as to shine with the light of your presence that the souls of all you love may truly live.

Isaiah’s words are a call to know and make known the freedom found nowhere but in the Eternal Love who lights the earth with every dawn and sprinkles the night sky with the starlit wonder of a billion distant suns.

But those smiles are brighter and more powerful than all those suns.

They awaken your living presence in sleeping souls and light human eyes with loving joy and everlasting hope. They breathe the exquisite air of your life into our lungs and we live, truly live.

Pr. David L. Miller