Psalm 50:7-15 (the Message)
"Are you listening, dear people? I'm getting ready to speak;
Israel, I'm about ready to bring you to trial.
This is God, your God,
speaking to you.
I don't find fault with your acts of worship,
the frequent burnt sacrifices you offer.
But why should I want your blue-ribbon bull,
or more and more goats from your herds?
Every creature in the forest is mine,
the wild animals on all the mountains.
I know every mountain bird by name;
the scampering field mice are my friends.
If I get hungry, do you think I'd tell you?
All creation and its bounty are mine.
Do you think I feast on venison?
or drink draughts of goats' blood?
Spread for me a banquet of praise,
serve High God a feast of kept promises,
And call for help when you're in trouble—
I'll help you, and you'll honor me."
Visible in the rear view mirror of life is the faint shadow of my forty year journey through the wilderness. As an infant, my parents wrapped me in cloth woven with strands of their grief, frustrations, and shame. Falling from a bridge, my paternal grandfather died at the age of forty-nine. Of necessity, dad left grade school to help care for the farm and his seven brothers and sisters. Mother, one of twelve children, suffered abuse from her alcoholic father. My parents did their best to give each of their children the gift of childhood they never knew. Our family was rooted in the church, but not God. To me, God lived in the church and was never around when I needed Him. My life became shrouded in my parents’ pain. Forty years I wandered without God; tasting, never satisfied, seeking, never finding. In His time, God called me. His voice echoed through my emptiness and I answered. Faithful to His promise, He brought me out from the darkness of the world and into the light of Christ. Reborn of the Spirit, God wrapped me in cloth woven with strands of His love, truth, and righteousness, and I am home.
Lord, thank you for your voice that calls us in from the dark and brings us into the light of true love and understanding. How humbling and beautiful it is to know that your grace exceeds our sin, and that our greatest desert is merely a sandbox filled with toys of our own choosing. As promised, the one who orders his way aright, I shall show the salvation of God. For all who step out of their sandbox, you are there to welcome them home. What a great God you are!
Bonnie McClurg
