Get a Glimpse

Does it ever seem like you’re swimming in a swamp, feeling like the water is maliciously trying to suck you under? It’s all you can do to keep your nose where the oxygen is not in liquid form. But you think: I’m strong. I can keep pushing myself. I can do this. I think…

And then you see the alligator.

It’s not a pleasant way to live, as if the circumstances of your life are all conspiring against you. Like it’s all just too much. With no way out. And there’s no one who could possibly help.

Or is there?

Ok, I know there are times when there truly is no help available; no one but you can dig yourself out. But often what you really need is a caring and smart listener who can re-frame all that’s going on. Someone who can help you see that the safe shore you’re swimming toward is really not unreachable. Someone you trust to swim alongside you. And maybe the two of you can even take on that alligator.

If you can remember such a time when a friend battled alligators with you, just take a moment to soak in that sense of being defended and cared for. And then, with those memories floating around, read the poetic words from Isaiah that you’ll find when you click on the title of this post. Just read the first section, verses 1 – 5.

You’ve read it already? Read it again while the rest of us are catching up, ok?

The poet is seeing God walk beside needy people, fighting the superpower bullies and caring for those who’ve been beaten up. Whenever I read these words, I can truly feel the safety-giving presence of God wash over me. It makes me think of how God has reached out to me through amazing friends or the perfect piece of music or the sight of glorious autumn colors. But that’s just the beginning.

I also feel a strong pull to be looking out for people around me who are in desperate struggles. I sense that God wants to work through me to swim alongside those who are swamped and see no hope.

I think about all those who are going to have a hard time with rent and heating bills this winter, people who are afraid they’ll lose their homes. We’ve really got to be watching out for one another, maybe now more than ever. Maybe that will even help nudge us out of our own hopeless prisons, to be empowered by God’s Spirit to care for others, even as we’re looking for help ourselves.

Ok, if you haven’t already read ahead the rest of the passage (that’s for the high-achieving geeks among us), then read verses 6 – 10.

Now the poet/visionary Isaiah sees an incredibly elaborate meal in the great outdoors, with awesome mountain views. And everyone has a place at this huge picnic table: the desperate ones, the helpful ones, and even the bullies. Everyone’s together, being served up royally by God.

Maybe this isn’t going to be happening today. But one day it will happen. Oppressors and oppressed alike will be at one table, hanging out with God and each other. The biggest bully of them all, Death, will be no more. And if people are crying, it’ll be tears of relief and joy washing over their once-anxious faces.

That’s the kind of hopeful picture that will keep me swimming strong in my swamps, holding up the heads of others so they can see the mountain, too.

~ Kari Henkelmann Keyl