Participating in God's work (Suzanne)

    Every human relationship is dependent on dialogue – on how we speak to each other, how we listen, how we communicate. And so it is with God. Communication with the Lord requires that we pay attention to God’s Word in our lives and enter into dialogue regularly with God. 

    However, in Isaiah 55, God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways… For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts. 

    This would seem to doom human communication with God to failure. Can we even begin to understand God, God’s thoughts, God’s ways? 

    One little word turns the tide: YET… Yet just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down… That little word, yet, is important… because it suggests hope! You may not understand me, God says – my thoughts and my words – yet I will send my word forth from my mouth and it will do what I want it to do: It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. 

    And we can participate!

    If God is sending God’s word, God must be sending it to someone – namely, us. Which means, implicitly, that there must be some way to “get it,” some way for us to get an inkling of God’s message, because God wants to communicate with us, be in relationship with us, allow us to participate in God's work. 

    This can only happen if we are open to God’s purpose, open to God’s will in our lives. Only through constant communication with God can we find our way to God’s kingdom, both here on earth and in heaven, in synch with God’s ways, in tune to God’s thoughts. Only by listening can we know God’s will and participate in God's work. Only in prayer can we be open: open to the salvation that is ours, open to the joy the Lord promises to the just… 

--Suzanne T.,
Communion Service Reflection,
March 7, 2017 

Image source: John August Swanson, Abraham and Isaac (2025, posthumous publication), available for purchase at: https://johnaugustswanson.com/catalog/abraham-and-isaac-2025/?srsltid=AfmBOooRO4vvFY8V_nZbZnOO7UZKKXF6cUCBE0FZJ-T4ZvAoi38Rsgn9