Isaiah 42:6-8 The Message
I am God. I have called you to live right and well. I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe. I have set you among my people to bind them to me, and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations. To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light: opening blind eyes, releasing prisoners from dungeons, emptying the dark prisons.
Short story: Got sick Tuesday evening. Went to prompt care Wednesday evening. Thrown in hospital for super high white count. Good news: white blood cells are working! Bad news: infected tonsil? At 51?
The longer, deeper story is the better one, however.
I came home again Saturday afternoon and have had more than one kind soul point out that you could get a heart transplant in less hospital time than that. In my (slow) defense, God had a few things he wanted to do — in me, for me and through me. That was my big takeaway. He has called me, taken responsibility for me, kept me safe, and set me among his people to bind them to him.
So, from a hospital bed for most of four days, I got to be bound up; and got to bind up others too. No less than five strangers wandered through my room, eventually sharing some of the deepest stories of their lives: a murdered son, a miscarriage, a long, out-of-the-blue depression, disappointment and anger with God, divorce, longings.
This passage was my devotional on Thursday morning and I had a few days to unpack it. What a relief that our lives are in his care in a bigger and more broad way than even a fabulous medical staff. What a privilege to be called for the task of binding others’ hearts to that Father.
The view from my bed was framed by a huge Honey Locust tree, even on the second floor; and above it, the cross at the top of the hospital, silhouetted against the night sky, reminding me that even in our worst of times, there are arms that reach out and roots that reach down. We are wanted. We are loved. We are useful.
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