Jesus waited trustingly on God in a deserted place in the early hours of the morning. And as he waited God showed him another way. Not the way of popularity and success, but the way of suffering that ran all the way to the cross. But Isaiah’s promise held true. He rose up with the breath of God’s Spirit bearing him up like the wind beneath an eagle’s wings. We declare our faith around this table week after week and share with him in his broken body to remind ourselves that the voice of silence in the deserted places is calling us to the same path, and that if we too take the path of integrity we too will find ourselves raised up with the Spirit beneath our wings. The way of finding the power of the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Christ) has always been the way of Jesus: the way of suffering service; the way of the desert; the way of the Cross. When we, through the power of the Spirit, deny ourselves, take up our Cross and follow Jesus in service to humanity, we will be blessed by the Spirit of God in ways we never imagined. May the Spirit be indeed beneath our wings!

Blessings in Jesus’ name,

KIM THODAY HEWETT COMMUNITY CHURCH OF CHRIST, SOUTH AUSTRALIA