"Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!"
Ever felt like that?
"God, I need you. There's no mistake. This isn't a hangnail or a sinus headache or a bad day. I need you. I need you so bad and I need you now. I need you to rip the veil that separates you from us and get here now. I need you. Can you please hurry?"
And then Isaiah goes on to paint a picture of this heaven-rending, action-oriented, right-now God.
Mountains quake and fire catches and water boils and nations tremble and mountains quake again.
And sometimes God shows up that way.
But lots of times he doesn't.
Maybe you are in a place where you are looking for a heaven-rending God right now. Or three weeks ago.
You are tired of waiting, of things not changing, of pain enduring and circumstances lingering.
You're tempted to get impatient, bitter, to take matters in your own hands.
I'm guessing Isaiah was as well. After all, he's calling on mountains to quake and tremble and God to act like a MMA athlete.
And then he catches himself. Verse four:
"From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him."
There is a causal relationship here between our waiting and God's acting.
If you are like me, you hate to wait.
I am awful at waiting. In line, in traffic, for news, for kids, in pain and uncertainty.
I wish I were better - had more fortitude and patience and trust and faith. But I don't.
But here it is - God acts for those who wait for him.
If you are in a place where you want God to rend the heavens, that is OK. You're in good company. Isaiah and all that.
But remember that he has not forgotten you - that he never could forget you - that to forget you would be foreign to everything he is.
And that, in time, he will act. And because he is good, so will be his actions.
No eye, no ear, no one has ever seen anything like it.
No comments:
Post a Comment