Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Jehovah-Jireh, our provider (from Latin prōvidēre to provide for, from prō- beforehand + vidēre to see)
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Third Sunday of Advent
Matthew 11:4-5
Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight … and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
Jesus wants John the Baptist, his cousin, to know that the kingdom of heaven has come to earth. God is with his people. In prison John can’t see it with his eyes, but he can see it in his mind and believe it in his heart.
Writing of another story about belief and provision – Abraham and Isaac’s sacrifice on Mount Moriah – Ann Voskamp salutes them with words that sing:
Take your tired hand and turn the knob of that front door marked Provide and step right into the widening vista of Advent and find that the literal translation of “to provide” means “to see.”
God always sees – and He will always see to it.
That is all that ever matters: God always sees, and He will always see to the matter.
Your legs may be weary and your heart may be heavy and your questions may be many, but whatever you are facing, it is always named Mount Moriah: the Lord will appear. The Lord sees. And he will see to it. And He will be seen.
The act of God’s seeing means God acts. God’s observing means He always serves. This is the thing: your God’s constant vision is your constant provision.
You don’t need to climb mountains named I Will Perform.
You don’t need to climb mountains named I Will Produce.
Every mountain that every Christian ever faces, the Lord levels with sufficient grace: the Lord Will Provide. Worry is belief gone wrong. Peace is belief that exhales.
Abraham couldn’t breathe while he blindly prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. And then there was God’s voice, and there was a ram caught in the thicket.
I imagine John holding his breath at the door of his prison cell, waiting to hear the news about Jesus from people he trusts. And I can almost hear him sigh with relief when they return. Take a deep breath. Let it out slowly. Believe.
So this simple thing, this breathing in and out, in and out, is tied right up and into believing and seeing and trusting, Lord. Make me whole, give me breath, let me see and wait to see, hear and wait to hear, be healed and wait for it. While all creation sings.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1211
