"Come, all you who are thirsty....Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live." Isaiah 55:1-3a (NIV)
Melea loves to check the mail at our house. You should see her face light up when she opens it to find something addressed to her! She skips and smiles all the way to the house...even if it's just a bank statement on her savings account! If she doesn't get a letter of her own, often she will ask if she can open one of mine or her Daddy's. When there's one addressed to the family, she immediately claims it.
I love to receive a letter or card in the mail too, but that's just not as likely these days, as we've moved on to more "instant gratification" through email. (Hmmm... an interesting sidenote...We spent a good part of our relaxing weekend watching hours of Little House on the Prairie. It speaks volumes for our generation that we call it "snail mail" if it takes a couple of days for a letter to get from one place to another. That's kind of sad.)
I enjoy getting email too...and you can check it multiple times a day, unlike the mailbox on our street. Just like Melea, I get that "awwww" feeling when there's nothing there...no one out there thinking of me...or needing to say something through cyberspace. Empty inboxes can be sad.
You know, it's just like I told Melea about getting mail. To get mail, you have to write mail. You have to make the effort.
Of course, I heard God's voice whispering in my ear, "You know, I've written you a letter...a long letter of my love for you. You can open it anytime you want...without the mailbox delivery time or waiting for an email to travel across the cyberwaves. And it will speak new and fresh words to fulfill your longings. Are you making the effort to reach out to me?"
Desiring to be obedient...and "check His mail", I picked up Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest. Because the bookmark was there, Saturday's devotion caught my eye. The Scripture passage for the day was from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3-10. I turned there in my tattered and marked Women's Devotional Bible. I had a star by verse 6, "Blessed (and that word was underlined) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." God led me from that to the verse in the Isaiah 55 passage, where we are told, (and I love this in The Message translation) "Hey there! All you who are thirsty, come to the water!...Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest. Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words."
You know, sometimes I can get a little legalistic about going to His Word before I open my emails...and I hope I'll become even more so. With Him, my "inbox" is always full...with His words and love that really satisfy...and never even a hint of junkmail!
And after I've spent time reading His Word, then of course, I'll always enjoy a letter or an email from a friend...those, too, are gifts from God! He's so good!
Dear God, the lover of my soul, thank You for Your Word to me. Thank You for life-giving, life-nourishing words that truly satisfy. Thank You for Your love and covenant for a thousand generations. You are great and greatly to be praised! Help us to remember to go to You first (Matt. 6:33) and be filled up to overflowing with You!
1 comment:
Kristi, It is so good to find you. I would loooove an update on the family and where you are geographically. I'm proud of you for putting yourself out there and writing this blog. You are a gifted person, and that is not just with writing. God's Word is so incredibly precious and we so often take it for granted. So many here have never been able to know God's Word. We are so lucky to read and speak English.
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