Let Us Not Forget
Look again at this reading from Isaiah. Who is Isaiah speaking to? Let’s see. Restore the land. Calling to prisoners to come out. People who are in hiding, show yourselves. You will not hunger or thirst. You will be guided by springs of water. The road will be leveled. You will be comforted.
With the issue in the Ukraine today, I see the destruction on the news. I imagine people are in hiding. In the bunkers made below ground it is as if they are in prison. There are many wars happening every day. There are refugees in hiding, or in prison, or in darkness. Who is Isaiah speaking to? Yes, the refugees but also to YOU! YOU can help provide food and water. YOU can lead people to safety. YOU can call them out of darkness.
The people of Zion express the fear that God has forgotten them. Not at all. God works through all of us. He encourages to begin with prayer. Over the last couple of weeks, I have discovered we have many people from Ukraine living among us. Some of them are now refugees. One person is a foreign exchange student from the Ukraine to the US where she lives with a family in Birchwood. Her name is Victoria. She is now a refugee. She has learned that her family has escaped the Ukraine for now, but everything has been destroyed. We seem so far away from what is happening in the world, but there are people amongst us who need our help and support.
Let us take the time to offer our prayers for Victoria and her family. They will need many things when this war comes to an end. Let us say an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be, praying for an end to the war, for the safety of her family, knowing God will always love them.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen