I am doing
my annual listen to Handel’s Messiah. I was struck this year by the first words
sung in the opening tenor recitative: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” Those are the opening words of Isaiah
40. These words appear to have been
spoken to people who were not in comfortable circumstances. They viewed themselves as faithful followers
of God, who were about to be handed over to a culture, society and political
system that despised God. Why should
anyone in circumstances like this find comfort?
The end of Isaiah 40 says it:
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting God, the Lord,
the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is
no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the
faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths
shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But
they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and
they shall walk, and not faint.
Those words resonate
within me at the end of this year. A
week before Thanksgiving I was informed that my current employment might end
within a year. On the very day this was
announced to me, the daily devotional I receive via email was titled “A Better
Future.” The text was Isaiah 43.15-21,
which includes these words: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the
things of old. I am about to do a new
thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the
wilderness and rivers in the desert” (18-19).
I am hopeful. I am trying to live
in excited anticipation to see the way in the wilderness and rivers (notice it
is plural) in the desert.
We got out to
Minneapolis four times this year to visit with Kevin and Marissa. It is beautiful to see their love and
friendship grow. We relax when we visit,
go for long walks, ride our bikes around the city, go the the State Fair.
Our trip out there in May included a stay at
Fish Creek in Door County, Wisconsin where we were able to ride our bikes all
over the county. In wooded areas we saw
thousands of Lady Slipper orchids in bloom.
Jayne lives four miles
from us, ½ mile from where I was hit from behind while riding my bicycle
November 2013. We enjoy weekly visits
with her. I went deer hunting with her
mid-November. She got a deer. We processed it ourselves. She did the best job I’ve ever seen trimming
all the meat of fat, sinew and sheath.
It made for very tasty venison.
Beth helps out at church
in various ways, behind the scenes work that makes the seen work go well. She visits and assists her mom almost
weekly. She has ridden her bicycle
nearly 2000 miles this year. She likes
her neighborhood, church and community.
By the end of December I
will have ridden my bike 4500 miles this year; my first bike ride after my
November 2013 accident was March 10, and it felt great to be able to ride. Mid-summer we got a nice quality tandem
bicycle. Until it got too cool in
October, we’d ride that together 25-45 miles on a Saturday or Sunday, exploring
places we’d never ridden before.
I
enjoyed deer hunting this year. I did a
fair amount of fishing for bluegills on Muskrat Lake, grew a small garden,
picked wild black raspberries. I try to
keep connected to the natural world.
Isaiah says that the new
thing has already sprung forth: the way in the wilderness and the rivers in the
desert. He asks us “do you not perceive
it?” I need those kind of eyes, like the
shepherds at Jesus’ birth who saw the multitude of angels.
