Day 17 - Tuesday, December 19
Title: THE GLORY OF THE LORD REVEALED
Scripture #1: Isaiah 54:1-5 (NKJV)
“Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited. “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
Scripture #2: Isaiah 40:5 (NKJV)
The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”

Poetry & Poet:
“The Signature of All Things (I)”
by Kenneth Rexroth

My head and shoulders, and my book
In the cool shade, and my body
Stretched bathing in the sun, I lie
Reading beside the waterfall –
Boehme's 'Signature of all Things.'
Through the deep July day the leaves
Of the laurel, all the colors
Of gold, spin down through the moving
Deep laurel shade all day. They float
On the mirrored sky and forest
For a while, and then, still slowly
Spinning, sink through the crystal deep
Of the pool to its leaf gold floor.
The saint saw the world as streaming
In the electrolysis of love.
I put him by and gaze through shade
Folded into shade of slender
Laurel trunks and leaves filled with sun.
The wren broods in her moss domed nest.
A newt struggles with a white moth
Drowning in the pool. The hawks scream,
Playing together on the ceiling
Of heaven. The long hours go by.
I think of those who have loved me,
Of all the mountains I have climbed,
Of all the seas I have swum in.
The evil of the world sinks.
My own sin and trouble fall away
Like Christian's bundle, and I watch
My forty summers fall like falling
Leaves and falling water held
Eternally in summer air.

DOWN TO THE DEPTHS

“For he spoke and stirred up a tempest.” –– Psalm 107:25

Jonah fled from God, carried God’s message grudgingly to the Ninevites, and waited to see if God’s judgment would fall on the hated Assyrians. Even then, the Lord met him and spoke tenderly to him. Despite his sin, despite our sin, Jesus draws near because He has bound Himself to us in covenant relationship. As Isaiah tells us, “Your Maker is your husband.”

Paul tells husbands to love their wives “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” By extension we know this is how Christ loves his people.

The speaker in Kenneth Rexroth’s poem sees nature as a metaphor that has him contemplating his life. He weaves words through the poem that represent good––gold, crystal, love, heaven; and bad––struggles, drowning, scream, evil. In the same way, we can view the biblical imagery of water as a metaphor. Christ, our husband, washes us with water through the word.

Sometimes that means washing us with cascading blessings until we bask in His goodness. Many times, He washes us by bringing a storm. Even Jonah’s non-Hebrew sailors knew the storm was sent by a powerful God saying, “for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.” The storm God sent to the Psalm 107 merchants made their ship “go up to the heavens and go down to the depths” until “their courage melted away.” He brought the storm to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee and began to walk past them to reveal Himself as the great I AM who “treads on the waves of the sea” (Job 9:8).

We struggle to keep our footing like the windswept figures in Theodore Prescott’s sculpture, Dance, which are made steady only by a force, the column of wedge-shaped discs, outside themselves. The storms came. The disciples and merchants were frantic. They could have had peace knowing their struggles came at God’s tender direction. But, like us, they were as wayward in their lack of trust as Jonah was in his run from God. The merchants could only praise God when it grew calm, and up to the last minute the disciples were saying, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” When trials come, we often feel like we are being wrecked on the rocks; sometimes peace only comes when Christ stops the storm.

In the poem, we see glimpses of the speaker’s life. There are people who loved him, but he was also challenged by mountains, seas, and the evil he encountered in the world. He went through storms, like Jonah, the disciples, the merchants, and us. But the whole poem illustrates where he is after the storms. It’s filled with images of light and allusions to light – the sun, gold laurel, the crystal deep of the pond, reflections in the water. Thinking about his life, the sunshine and the storms – having been washed by the water through the word – he feels release from his sin and burdens which brings a great peace in the promise of eternity.

Our Maker, our husband, is faithful to accomplish His tender work in us as He washes us through blessings and storms. Then, like the prayer in today’s song, the weight of His glory falls, we walk on water, see enemies turn to the Lord, and sing praises for God’s rescue.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
We are often lost at sea and in distress. Forgive us for our lack of faith, forgive us for not recognizing that it’s You coming across the waves. We thank You that our struggle to trust does not put You off but draws You near in tenderness. Help us hear Your voice. Help us become people who praise You in the midst of storms.
We love You.
Amen.

Jayne English
Essayist

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