Isaiah 11:2-4, 6-7, 9 (NRSV)
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth…
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox…
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Devotion
Kate keeps trail mix in her car. The stroller has a second bag of Goldfish, and, as I write this, there’s a king-size Snickers bar in the computer desk that keeps reappearing. When Collin eats Cheetos, he brings me a piece for every one of his (ok, every five, but he can’t count). Every crevice of our life has food stashed away just in case. My name is LT, and I suffer from “hanger.”
So does our Christian Community. Spiritually starving Christians across the country can let our hunger turn to anger, and our anger can so easily turn to destruction. Some of that may have been behind the actions on January 6, 2021. We see more of it every day when Christians attack people who look or act differently than they do. To the hungry wolf, everything is a lamb.
So how have we become so hungry? Where is our stashed-away Snickers bar? God started today’s passage with a recipe: a dash of wisdom and understanding, a sprinkle of counsel and might, and a dollop of knowledge and fear of the Lord. Twenty minutes at 350 degrees, and you’ve got yourself God’s homemade love, ready to serve. And it’s that last part that is most important: you serve. By fighting for righteousness and equity, God says we can stop the hurt and destruction: The wolf can rest with the lamb. The Christian can hug their transgender neighbor. The Community can love again and stop looking for its next meal.
Prayer
Dear God, thank you for your emergency recipe for love. While we do not get it right every time, we pray you help us to keep trying until no one is hungry and everyone is safe.
LT Edwards