Note: for the past week I was at the ELCA National Youth Gathering in New Orleans and on break from Fit Under the Collar postings due to spotty internet availability and time. It was a great event, but it's also good to be back home.
Scripture Verse that caught my attention today: Isaiah 42:16 I will lead the blind
by a road they do not know,
by paths they have not known
I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do,
and I will not forsake them.
Observation: Isaiah painted a vision requiring total trust.
Application: Recently I read of a contestant in a major beauty pagent who was blind (or partially blind). In order to compete, she had to memorize the staging area, counting how many steps it was from here to there, etc. Someone, I trust, walked her through the routine so that she could memorize the area properly. Once she had done so, I would imagine that the contestant did just fine. The same is probably true for her home surroundings—she probably knows where everthing is and can walk about with relative freedom and easy. It is path she no doubt knows.
This passage, however, reminds the people of Israel that the Lord will lead them (blind as they might be in many ways), by a path they have not known. It will be new to them. They will not be able to walk about with confidence unless they are connected to the faithful one who will lead them through this new territory.
In some ways each day of life is new territory. We can pretend that it’s old hat and that we already know the way, but we do so at our own peril. Better to simply hold on tight to the one who has walked this path before in order that, as the Scriptures say, the darkness before us might become light and the rough places might become level ground.
Prayer: Lord, turning—indeed clinging—to you is the way to encounter every path in life. Help us to consistently do so. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Scripture Readings today included: Isaiah 40-42 and 1 Peter 3)
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