By Walt Walton
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. - Isaiah 61:1
I grew up in a single parent household. I’d say we were middle class, but only because my mother worked 2 to 3 jobs to pull us through. She would pray and display unwavering faith, and somehow, we were kept afloat. That somehow was God.
I love the way the above passage mentions good news to the poor and healing to the brokenhearted. Most of us have known some form of poverty, and all of us know that pangs of broken heartedness. Trials and tribulations befall us every year, and it isn’t like there is a hard-stop on pain each December. Fortunately, there isn’t a hard-stop on God either.
Growing up, although I was poor spiritually and physically, there was good news. Although I was often brokenhearted, God could heal my wounds. Although I often felt captive where I resided, the heart of gangland, I didn’t have to be a prisoner. God enters our poverty, our broken heartedness, and he brings healing and deliverance.
The next six verses of Isaiah 61, set up a tension—a hardship—and then a renewal provided by God. The captives find freedom; the joyless are overjoyed; the poor are rich in hope, as they receive a double portion and everlasting joy.
We realize all this in the good news of Jesus. That even when we feel destitute and desolate, we are wealthy in the richness of Jesus. That even in dire moments of life, God interjects, intercedes, and interferes with darkness, bringing forth a marvelous light, like a shining star welcoming all who draw near. God finds a way—somehow. God is the way—somehow. And somehow this Somehow has chosen to love and redeem and restore us.
May this holiday season bring that sort of somehow life, that rich wonder, to you, as you reflect forth the light of Jesus.
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