Listen: (3:32)
Ev'ry valley shall be exalted
and ev'ry mountain and hill made low
the crooked straight
and the rough places plain. (Isaiah 40:4)
Reflection: As we move on to the next verse from Isaiah, the pace picks up. The mood moves from comfort to exhilaration. What I love about this piece is that it does what it says. There are so many little ups and downs in the orchestral score, that I almost picture running up and down past rolling hills and mountains. As the soloist sings about valleys exalted, he works his way up the scale, as though by singing alone he is doing the raising.
From the very beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures, God makes things happen by speaking. In the first chapter of Genesis, God's word, "let there be light," is all it takes for light to come into being. There are a lot of metaphorical valleys and hills in our world that may seem like permanent obstacles to God's reaching us. War, poverty, racism, greed, and complacency seem like such immovable fixtures in humankind. But the same God who can make create the world from nothing, and who can make dry bones live again, all with just a word, can smooth over even these things when the time is right.
Prayer: God, make the crooked places straight and the rough places plain in our spirits. Only speak, and anything that would prevent us from hearing your voice can be smoothed out. Speak to us now.
Questions for discussion:
1) What is a "crooked" or "rough" place in our world, in need of God's help? What would it look like for it to be smoothed out?
2) What about in our own lives? Where are the rough places?
3) Have you ever had a situation where just speaking the right words have changed a whole situation? How does God's word do that for us?
No comments:
Post a Comment