Saturday, April 18, 2015

Who is She?


By Shirley Wiggins

“Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; …”  Isaiah 43.4

There she is – the blind woman. 
You’ve seen her before and wondered that she had no seeing loved one or even a friend to come alongside her on her way.

How did she get here?  She can’t see to walk so she certainly didn’t drive herself here.
Who could just drop her off and leave her alone to make her own way through crowded aisles, making her selections without being able to read the labels?

Surely her conglomeration of things she’s gathered into her basket can never be combined to be useful!  Why does no one offer to help her?
People, especially other women, walking all around her, making their own selections with eyes that see while she gropes to find by feeling for her needs.

Why will no one help her?  Why do we pretend not to see what we see?
Women of all ages in all stages of their lives surround us every day.  We see their plight – and turn away. We close our own eyes and pretend not to see what we do see, nor to understand what we do hear.

The spiritually deaf and blind and mute abound on Planet Earth.  We see them every day.  Some of them we know personally.
What will become of our children and grandchildren in the coming generations if the seeing refuse to see and say,  and if the hearing ear blocks access to our hearts,  and if the mouth remains mute refusing to share the good news of Jesus Christ? 

To keep to ourselves the divine truth that the Messiah has come is a sin too grievous to contemplate!  He has come and died and been resurrected in all power to save all those with eyes to see and ears to hear, hearts to care, minds to believe -- souls in need of a Savior.
Who is she, the unknown (or perhaps known) woman, young or old, who  continually crosses your line of vision, whether your physical eyes or the spiritual eyes of your heart, with her bundle of needs she doesn’t yet know how to meet as God intended? 

That woman who deals with life’s difficulties in ways you know are destined to bring only misery and pain resulting in heartache and grief? 
Do we think that God doesn’t notice or care about those who have never known Him or perhaps who have just wandered far away from Him by missing the mile markers blowing past them in their desperate flight through life? 

The Lord does notice and He does care about all to whom He has given the breath of life.  Moreover, He wants His own children to care about all  people:  those who’ve seen the Light and run toward it,  those who’ve seen it yet ran away from it, and those who’ve never seen it. (See John 1:1-51.)
God’s desire is that all people would see the Light of His Gospel Truth and run to Jesus!  God’s desire is that all His people would be bearers of the message:  His message.  Time will run out before we’re ready, don’t wait to get involved with the folks who can’t yet see the Light and hear His voice calling them into relationship with Himself and His children.

Isaiah 42:18-25 The Message (MSG) 

You’ve Seen a Lot, but Looked at Nothing:

18-25 Pay attention! Are you deaf?
    Open your eyes! Are you blind?
You’re my servant, and you’re not looking!
    You’re my messenger, and you’re not listening!
The very people I depended upon, servants of God,
    blind as a bat—willfully blind!
You’ve seen a lot, but looked at nothing.
    You’ve heard everything, but listened to nothing.
God intended, out of the goodness of his heart,
    to be lavish in his revelation.
But this is a people battered and cowed,
    shut up in attics and closets,
Victims licking their wounds,
    feeling ignored, abandoned.
But is anyone out there listening?
    Is anyone paying attention to what’s coming?
Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs,
    let loose the robbers on Israel?
Wasn’t it God himself, this God against whom we’ve sinned—
    not doing what he commanded,
    not listening to what he said?
Isn’t it God’s anger that’s behind all this,
    God’s punishing power?
Their whole world collapsed but they still didn’t get it;
    their life is in ruins but they don’t take it to heart.


The Message (MSG)  Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

 

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