12-13-11 Isaiah 40:1-11 Softly and Tenderly
I love getting an invitation. Do you? I love invitations to parties, weddings, graduations, showers. I love being invited to a friend’s house. I love being invited out to dinner. I love invitations.
I’m not sure who invented the “hymn of invitation” that typically closes many Christian services, but I know that Billy Graham has been well known for his. He closed his services with the hymn, “Just As I Am.” I worked with an evangelist in Kansas City who always closed his services with “I Surrender All.” While I have always been blessed by those hymns, the hymn that never fails to tug at my heart is, “Softly and Tenderly.” The invitation to “come home” in the chorus of that hymn is like balm to my weary heart.
Living a life away from our spiritual home is a wearisome thing. Trying to function without a moral compass is discouraging and draining. When we are at odds with or arm’s length from the one who knows us best and loves us most life is hard and our hearts yearn for the peace of home. I guess that’s why today’s scripture speaks so much to me.
The prophet describes how the way has been prepared for our God to come to us. Let us do our best to come to Him.
Pot of Manna 