Found

 Isaiah 40:1-11

Imagine the worst thing which could happen. A thing which would cut you off from the community, family you are in. The place where you are in exile. This is where the God meets the community of Judah in this poem.

There are so many places, it especially seems right now where people are separated out of community. Because of a difference in belief, in even the smallest things. Because of mental health, because of coming out as an LGBTQ+ and there is no safe place.

What would it sound like to express this loss. Express how left out and desolate it all is. Then to hear this longing from God. The longing and want to comfort those people. Yes all of them. Because into desolation is where God wants to meet and comfort us. Every challenge shall be met by compassion.  This is God. 

So often we think of Jesus in this passage. The only thing it meant to the Hebrews was God would find them, even in exile, even in a foreign place. With no temple, no way to worship, they had to recreate themselves. God yearns to find and comfort them in this place and in spite of who they were or what they had done.

When we misinterpret this passage we miss the loving God in the Old Testament. The One who commands more compassion from the people of Israel than in their surrounding neighbors. This is so they will bless others and become a blessing. How would it be if we represented this kind of love in the world?

Comfort my people. The ones lost in depression, the ones addicted, the ones who cone out only to find ridicule. Comfort them. The ones we disagree with. The ones we can't see eye to eye. And maybe they will know they have been carried by God.

Just like Jesus we are the only representation some people see of Gods love and comfort. Right now we are known as the most hypocritical and judgmental people around. Shouldn't we want to change this? Shouldn't we want what we have found? The loving arms of God calling us to love, to show the world his love. Because the God of compassion truly and deeply knows us and loves us all.