You Will Be a Noonday Garden

Lent Day 17, Monday, March 24

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
 you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ 
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry
 and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
 then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually
 and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong;
 and you shall be like a watered garden,
 like a spring of water,
 whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:9-11

The Lord warned the Israelites that real religion was not about earning more pious points but about reaching out to the needy. The promise of the Lord to those who pour themselves out for those in pain and poverty: He will make your light rise, dispel your gloom, guide you, satisfy you, make you strong. You shall be like a watered garden, whose water do not fail.

Ponder: Where are you “piously” pointing the finger instead of pouring yourself out for the poor?  Where are you in a dry and weary land, in gloom longing for noonday?

Praise: When you cry, he says, “Here I AM.” He will satisfy your desires in scorched places.

Artist: Tracy Boyd, “Noonday Garden”

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