Isaiah 55:1-5 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 55:1-5 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 55Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Verse 2Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Verse 3Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Verse 4See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Verse 5See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Devotion
In 1993, floods ravaged the Midwest. Inner-city folk and suburbanites alike lost everything. Upscale stores filled with sewage. In Des Moines, Iowa, 250,000 people lost drinking water for 19 days. In Ames, Iowa, after the county’s primary food pantry was destroyed, our church building became an emergency distribution location. In a deluge matching the flood waters, needed items too numerous to name flowed in. The trickle of persons seeking help became a torrent. Both the blessings and those blessed were out of our control. God moved. The community responded. And we watched a miracle.
For the world’s sake, God made a covenant with David. The covenant was simple. I will give you what you truly need at my own expense. Then I will send the nations to you so they may be blessed. God’s grace is like that. It’s out of our control. It blesses. We watch. Miracles unfold.
Prayer
God of grace, open our hearts to the outpouring of your love. Open our hands to share the grace we have known with a world that needs it as desperately as we do. Amen.