GENEralities

One of the things I really like about living in Medicine Hat is the countryside. I especially enjoy the drive north on highway 41. That open country and those dry rolling hills please me. I love the look of it when the sun is low and warm light and cool shade seem to intertwine as they flow in and out and around the folds of the landscape. I love the fresh blue green of the new grass in the spring; when there is some. The prophet Isaiah must have experienced a similar sight in his day when he wrote:

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing. (Isaiah 35.1-2)

As I write this I am very much aware of the plight in which our farmers find themselves. I know one of them and admire the way he shrugs and endures. For them any blossoming in the dry land this year was far from abundant.

Isaiah’s land, the cradle of Christianity, is dry land, too; physically dry, but amazingly fruitful in other ways. Isaiah understood that:

For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
4 They shall spring up among the grass
like willows by flowing streams.(Isaiah 44.3-4)

I like to think of the church in Medicine Hat that way; flowing streams of living water in a dry and thirsty land. I look forward to the day when this whole city will rejoice and blossom abundantly with the new life that only Jesus can provide.

I’ll rejoice when God pours water on my friend’s thirsty land again, too.

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