SCRIPTURE
ISAIAH 55
 
Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
 
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
—ISAIAH 55:1-3, 12

Early in our marriage, my husband and I spent a year of volunteer missionary service in the small southern African nation of Eswatini (then Swaziland). Much of our work was in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and one of our first tasks was to help organize a container shipment of medical supplies from a group of donors in the U.S. Because the container itself was also being gifted as additional hospital storage, we needed to hire a crane to lift it off the truck. Now that high-speed internet and Google have found their way to Eswatini, this task may not be so hard today. But back then, I quickly learned it was going to be much harder than I ever anticipated to get what was needed on the exact day we needed it.

The day before the shipment was to arrive, we were still scrambling. I had called, left messages, and had many conversations that barely broke through language barriers. Still there was no crane. With the shipment under twenty-four hours away, the pressure was mounting, and I had exhausted everything I knew to do. After crying exasperated tears, I decided to take a nap and hoped I would have new energy to think of something else when I woke up.

An hour later, I woke to my phone ringing. It was a call from someone who heard what I was looking for, and they asked if still needed help. While they did not have a crane, there was a large forklift they assured me could do the job! I admit, I was skeptical, but I was also immediately flooded with relief and joy. The work was not complete, but my joy in that moment was not about being finished. It was about the realization that God had been at work—while I took a nap! And, incidentally, the forklift did work, which brought more joy later!

My husband and I have returned to this story many times to draw on its truth. But it’s not true only for us—it’s a universal truth that says much more about who God is than anything else. There are times when all of us have tried everything we know to do and have still come up short. We have exhausted ourselves with seemingly nothing to show for it, arriving empty-handed, frustrated, maybe even ashamed. Then God shows up and provides what we couldn't, filling our empty hands with what is good—whether it’s what we've been asking for or something else entirely. There are many times I’ve thrown up my hands, taken a nap, and woken up without the thing being fixed but with a new sense of peace in place of my anxiety.

The joyful truth here is not that we always get what we want but that we have a God who is working on our behalf with resources we can’t comprehend. This is an invitation into a whole new reality of abundance that gives us permission to rest. It is not all up to us to get what we need or to fulfill what others need. In the reality of God’s kingdom, there is more at work in the world than what we make happen ourselves. And this is very good news! This is reason for joy, indeed.

The reality of abundance and rest in God’s kingdom is available to us always, but it usually takes us coming to the end of our own resources to realize it—which is perhaps why the gift of joy surprises us so much in our waiting. When we don’t have what we need, longing for what is yet to come, our capacity for accepting God’s abundant provision expands. In this upturned landscape, we can name our empty-handedness as a gift that allows us to be filled by God, leading us to go out in joy.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, AND PRAYER

How have you encountered God’s abundance in providing what you couldn’t make happen?

When have you experienced the joy of receiving rest before the work was done?

What changes within yourself have you noticed as you’ve been naming gifts this week?