Day 278

Jeremiah 4:19-6:14; Colossians 1:21-2:7; Psalm 77:1- 20; Proverbs 24:23-25

God Is Good

What a juxtaposition! Compare Jeremiah’s description of how another nation will come in and punish God’s people for their transgressions to Paul’s letter to the Colossians, declaring how God through Paul is inviting the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God. All through history and all through our lives, God’s hand is at work among us. That is the truth. Perceiving that truth is often difficult.

The people of Judah and Jerusalem were blessed to have Jeremiah calling their attention to God’s hand at work among them, but did they listen? The people of Colossae were blessed to have Paul’s letter declaring that yes, God was working among them in Jesus Christ! Come to Him for everlasting life. But did they listen?

God is in our midst tearing down, as in Jeremiah, and building up. Who will be the herald for our world today? Who will bring the message of Christ crucified to those who do not know it or have forgotten it? And will people hear?

In both Jeremiah’s case and Paul’s case, some do indeed hear. And we who read it again today will hear it too. And that makes all the difference! That changes something! That is God working, that is our noticing that God’s work continues.

And the psalmist reminds us that if you are not hearing clearly, if you are getting to a point in your life when you might start doubting if God’s work continues, then start crying louder to God, and God will answer. “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God that he may hear me!” Moan and meditate, and refocus on the good that God is even in the midst of destruction.

The Rev. Alison P. Harrity