Today’s readings are brimming with images of life, joy, praise and healing.  Perhaps they are even surprising to our ears in this season of Lent.  Listen to some of the images:

“…there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create;
 …I create Jerusalem to be joy and its people to be a delight…” (Isaiah 65:18)
 
“No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there….
 …no longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime.” (Isaiah 65:19-20)

“You changed my mourning into dancing; O Lord, my God, forever will I give you thanks.”  (Psalm 30:12a, 13b)

“’Sir, come down before my child dies.’  Jesus said to him, ‘You may go; your son will live.’  …The fever left him…just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” (John 4:49-53)

But listen to the strength of today’s Scripture.  Who is our God?  He is the One who longs for life and weeps profoundly at the death of innocent life.  He is the One who humbled Himself beyond what we can really grasp to save us and bring us back into the tender, care of His heart.  He is the One who heals, who has mercy, and whose heart breaks at the sorrows of our lives.

Listen to this beautiful passage in the book of Hosea:

“When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son.
The more I called them, the farther they went from me…
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms;
I drew them with human cords, with bands of love;
I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks;
Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.” (Hosea 11:1-4)

We often expect Him to be very distant, silent and unknowing.  But the truth is seen in the image of God stooping to feed us, particularly in the places in our hearts where it hurts most.