October 9, 2024

Psalm 126 (The Message)

126 1-3 It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,
    when God returned Zion’s exiles.
We laughed, we sang,
    we couldn’t believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations—
    “God was wonderful to them!”
God was wonderful to us;
    we are one happy people.

4-6 And now, God, do it again—
    bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
So those who planted their crops in despair
    will shout “Yes!” at the harvest,
So those who went off with heavy hearts
    will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing.

Anyone who has been on a mission trip will tell you, the blessing that you think you are going to deliver to someone else, comes back to you tenfold.  When Andy and I visited India with Freedom Challenge, we were in a church that was meeting in a school in the slums of Mumbai—they asked Andy to share a word from scripture and a greeting from Advent.  The people in attendance hung on every word as his message was translated into Hindi and then after the service, they lined up for us to pray for them.  There is such a beauty in people who are hungry for the deliciousness of our heavenly Father.  In the midst of a slum in India, in a little church meeting in a school—they couldn’t believe their good fortune that God loves them—it overflowed from them.  And as we walked through the slum after that wonderful service—we prayed for God to “do it again,” for every person we encountered, knowing that his promise is to restore all creation.  

As we walk El Camino, our prayer is like the Psalmist—bring rain to the draught stricken lives of the enslaved, so that those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing, singing,  “God was wonderful to us!”  Let it be so, Lord! 
 
Susan Hagen

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