The Hebrew Scriptures appointed for today is from Isaiah, and for me, it contains some of the most comforting words. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” God is clearly telling us that our human thoughts, anxieties, foibles – are not God’s. God is not troubled by the things that trouble us. Nor is God necessarily pleased with the things that please us. God is God, and we are not. How comforting to know that God doesn’t get caught up in our human ways! God loves us infinitely. God is always there for us as a steady presence, abiding with us through our good and bad times. But God doesn’t act the way we might think or hope God should. God’s agenda is not ours.
“For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Not only are God’s thoughts and ways not our ways, but they are higher. They are not earthly, bound up in this often difficult world. God is free from that. But we can be with God. We can connect with God and for moments enter into God’s presence, letting go of the Earthly things that pull us down and take our attention. This Lent I hope we can all find those times to let go of our worldly thoughts, hopes, fears – and enter into God’s higher presence and experience God’s higher love for us.
Thom Sinclair
Links to the appointed readings and prayer for today:
