Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.

A voice cries out:

"In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!

Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!

Every valley shall be filled in,

Every mountain and hill shall be made low...

Then the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

And all people shall see it together.

Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;

In his arms he gathers the lambs,

Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care."

Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11

These are the words that the prophet Isaiah offered to the Hebrew people as they struggled to comprehend the time of the Babylonian captivity.  The former glory of the kingdom of David had been destroyed, the armies of Jerusalem conquered and the citizens of Judea deported and held as prisoners in Babylon.  The Hebrews had lost everything that had previously mattered to them.  They were inconsolable in their despair.  The greatest of all insults, however, was the destruction of the magnificent temple - the house of their God.  In their minds, if the temple had been destroyed, then so too had their God.  How could they worship God without the temple?  In the face of these tragedies, the Hebrew people were sure that God had abandoned them.

Isaiah, in these words of comfort, reminds them that this could not be further from the truth.  God had not deserted them.  In fact, God was right there in their midst, holding them, comforting them, helping them to find peace amid the perceived devastation. 

There are times in each of our lives where we too feel as if the obstacles in our lives are surmountable.  Facing the disappoint, loss, suffering of the human condition, we often feel as if we are in a dry and barren wasteland, or struggling to climb the most difficult mountain.  The temptation during these times of trial is to believe that God has abandoned us, that we are alone - or worse, that the struggles of the human condition are some sort of punishment for past transgressions.  God's word to the Hebrew people (through Isaiah), are God's words for us as well.  God is right here within and beside us, comforting us, helping us to find the way through the desert and the peace within the storm.  The challenge for us is to allow ourselves to be open to perceiving and believing in this truth. 

EXERCISE:

In the coming week, when you find yourself facing the struggles of the human condition, imagine that God is holding you, offering you comfort, peace and love.  Allow yourself, just for a moment, to believe that you are being held and allow yourself, just for a moment, to really feel this comfort filling you and bringing you to peace.