Word Pictures

Great God, speak to us through your Sacred Pages. Let us take in the richness of your being in our lives. While our spirit is aware of your presence, make us more aware of your work around us and enable us to be a frutiful and effective conduit of your Way. In Christ, we pray. Amen.

Isaiah 12:2-6
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 

 And you will say in that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be known in all the earth.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

     It is a well known saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. A word picture in Scripture is worth an unknown number of words. It is perhaps a great deal more, particularly given the number of books written on various passages. Sometimes, though, it is a lot less because the mind and hands are not able to easily write what the spirit quickly perceives. 

     The skeptic might hear a passage like "draw water from the well of salvation..." and ask how are you drawing the water, and what is the water--a portion of salvation? This poetic prophecy defies straightforward logic. Yet, in faith, it makes perfect sense to our heart, soul, spirit, inner being and well drawer.

     We also can connect through time with those in the majority of Isaiah's original audience that would have had many reasons for sensing a tremendous hope in this whole text. We know what it feels like when everything seems dry, cracked and broken without much life. This word picture pulls us up out of our dry place and tells our heart to turn to praise and thanksgiving. God draws us into the recognition of a whole rich reality beyond our current condition. The Creator splashes us with a great and long holy recall of promises kept and many more still waiting to erupt against a time of great need.  Lift up your head! Lift up your voice! Praise God!