**** COMFORT ****
We all have need of it! … that “warm feeling of contentment as we snuggle down and forget the cares that stress us…
If we hear the word, we are likely to think about relaxing in our favorite chair, wearing old slippers and reading a good book … or the feeling we have when we are sick and someone is providing TLC…restaurants often include “comfort food” among their gourmet choices —meatloaf or mac and cheese or chocolate pudding “like Grandma used to make…” Feeling comfortable is an experience of — “aaaaaaaaaah…”
In Isaiah 40 God says “comfort ye, my people…” — WONDERFUL words to the defeated, disheartened Israelites! The message? GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU!! ... Be ye comforted … And do WE ever need to hear those same words today! In the midst of war, climate change, COVID, inflation, gun violence, racism and rampant UN-kindness, how does God provide that comfort? Does God still promise to be with us?
Of course. God is with us every time we open ourselves up to experiencing love in another person. God is with us when we BECOME LOVE and become the face of God for others… God is with us when we receive the promise in our lives and allow the promise to be seen the way we behave — and our lives proclaim it.
This Sunday the choir will sing an anthem — COMFORT, COMFORT YE MY PEOPLE (click here to listen). It is an energetic and lively anthem, reflecting the fact that when we do become the face of God, we are infused with DIVINE ENERGY! — energy to BE comfort those who “sit in darkness,” energy to become LOVE to and for each other… energy to BE the promise which the world so desperately needs!
Will you be someone’s comfort today?