***Friends, the following biblical passage and thoughts from Timothy Dalrymple, President and CEO of Christianity Today, was a great encouragement to me this week and I wanted to share it with you.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:1-8, ESV

“Isaiah 40 is one of the loveliest chapters in the Bible… [it provides an expansive theological perspective for our times.] Pandemics come and go. Battles are fought and forgotten. Political powers pass in a blink, and nations rise and fall like the grass beneath the withering sun. The Word of God endures into eternity, and those who are joined to Christ will outlive the mountains and the seas. Politics and culture are not unimportant, but neither are they the hope of the world. Love requires that we engage in public life for the good of our neighbor, but it also requires that we show our neighbor the grace of Jesus Christ.

So what can we do in this painful and perilous moment to reflect the grace of Jesus? We can demonstrate in our behavior that the eternal things remain eternal. We can lift up the wounded and speak hope to the fearful. We can be quick to listen and slow to speak. We can conduct ourselves with humility, compassion, and grace, showing kindness where it is least expected. We can honor the inestimable worth in each and every person and invite them with us into life everlasting.

Perhaps we can even do what is most countercultural when culture is soaked through with hatred: tell someone on the other side of the aisle that we love them and demonstrate it in our deeds.”[1]

[1] Christianity Today, November 2020, 9.