I liked what I did

First, an Update on Luciene: Surgery had to be postponed because Lu’s ankle, foot, and leg are still too swollen. Her provisional new date–with a different surgeon–is June 29. Please pray the swelling will go down, that God will give her daily grace to deal with the severe pain and the disappointment of being stuck in a recliner during this special visit to her children and grandchildren instead of doing all the fun things they had planned. And pray for financial provision. All this is costing much more than their travel insurance! If you want to give Lu an encouraging message, send me an email or write it in the comments.

But God says “Listen to me”

Isaiah 1:3-4, 10, 17, 29 My people don’t recognize my care for them … They have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. … Listen to the Lord … Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.” … Be ashamed of your idol worship.

On Mother’s Day, one of my daughters wrote me a beautiful letter, listing some of the things she recognizes, now that she’s a mom, that I did for her when she was a child. Things she took for granted, as children do. Perhaps her own daughters won’t appreciate all she does for them until they too are parents.

Isn’t it hard, though, when our little ones turn their backs on us when we’re trying to serve and care for them? This too is a common experience, one that often requires some form of discipline.

A few weeks ago, I carried one of my three-year-old granddaughters—yelling “I don’t want to obey you!”—to her room to sit in a chair for three minutes because she refused to stop doing something destructive. While she sat sobbing in the chair, I rushed to repair the damage while I still could. As I worked, I heard her sobs lessen and stop.

When I returned to talk with her about what had happened, my granddaughter listened to me, then gave a big sigh and said, “Grammy, you might as well leave me here, because I liked what I did, and I want to do it again. I’m not sorry. I enjoyed it. I like the color. I think it should be everywhere.”

I told her, “I see. Well, when you’re ready to obey and not do it again, you can come out of your room and play.” Then I hurried downstairs to place all bottles of her mom’s nail polish where she couldn’t reach them.

What she had done was to “paint” the floor and the furniture within easy reach with, yes, deep pink nail polish.

By the time I had looked carefully to be sure there were no more traces of deep pink glommed onto the floor and furniture, she appeared, hugged me, and cheerfully began playing with one of her “stuffies.” Though I don’t know the exact mental process she engaged, I haven’t heard her reference nail polish since that day.

In Isaiah 1, God offers his people the same option. They’re under discipline, but they don’t have to stay there. They can repent, and receive forgiveness, and return to the rewards of obedience.

So can we. We too can learn to do good. We can learn to live in ways that please and honor the Lord. And one of the main things that pleases the Lord, as Isaiah observes, is our honor and care for one another.

Zion will be restored by justice; those who repent will be revived by righteousness (Isaiah 1:27).

Note: I’ve been asking the Lord where to focus during these months of “Ordinary Time,”—from Pentecost to Advent—and keep having my attention drawn to the Old Testament book written by the prophet Isaiah. I noticed that since starting this blog, I’ve referred to Isaiah 51 times; in some cases, because Isaiah was one of Karis’s favorites. But I haven’t gone through the book systematically, highlighting precious “pearls” left for us by this prophet.

A bit of orientation: Isaiah prophesied over a period of almost sixty years, through the reigns of four kings of Israel (Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and part of Hezekiah’s), from 792 to 686 BC. He lived through civil war between Israel and Judah and saw the destruction of Israel in 722 BC. Thus, the first half of his book includes warnings, judgment and tragedy, and we find more comfort in the second half. But there’s a lot in the first half that seems directly applicable to our own time, going on three millennia later! That’s one of the amazing things about Scripture, how timeless it is, reflecting the fact that God does not change—and apparently, neither does human nature.