The comforter
Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
Teach me your paths. Psalm 25:4
Read Isaiah 49:8—13
I reflect at the end of this day. Where have I wandered? Have I found pasture? What threat have I faced, scorching wind or burning sun? Have I needed God’s pity? His leading? His compassion? Have I come to the evening, when I should feel I am coming home, yet still feel somehow in exile? The great comfort I have is that God has come to me in the Son who went to the far country, and there he has found the lost. I have not listed any tale of woe that he does not know all about, and at a depth greater than my own. I truly believe that. I really, really know it to be true.
Oh dear Father, you sent your Son to be the shepherd of my soul, to walk my road, to know my grief and frustration, to steer my course, to find me and to redirect me when I have stolen away from my proper course. You sent him to love me, to actually love me. And he came to unite me to others, to call me to find myself in a new way with others that he has gathered, others that he has comforted, others that he has guided alongside the springs of water. So I thank you that I can actually name those who are in company with me. They are part of the church with me. They are blessed along with me. They have been led by the Spirit into ways that enrich me and make me altogether a more complete person than I could ever be on my own. It is with them that I break forth into songs of joy. I don’t sing alone. I sing with them, your people.