Isaiah 35:4-7a (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 35:4-7a on biblegateway.com
Verse 4Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you."
Verse 5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; Verse 6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; Verse 7the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
Devotion
“And the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5)
I knew she couldn’t hear, and they told me she couldn’t speak. For all her life, her four unmarried brothers and sisters had sheltered her, keeping her away from people. Before her death, when confined in a nursing home, I continued my ministry to her. I held her hands and we communicated with our eyes.
Then one day it struck me like lightening that maybe she could read. So I scribbled on a scrap of paper, “Emma, can you read?” Startling me half to death, her verbal response was “Of course!”
“Do you believe in Jesus?” I wrote. “Of course,” she answered. Thus began a most wonderful time with a most wonderful woman whose loud confession to every faith question was “Of course!” Emma couldn’t hear like we hear, but Emma heard!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, open our ears to both listen and hear your good news of water breaking forth in the wildernesses of our fears. Strengthen our weak hands and make firm our feeble knees.