I once had the privilege of entertaining an art professor who was visiting our church and would be displaying a “Head of Christ” made of clay. He would create the sculpture while testifying to his faith. In our congregation was a friend of the professor who had retired as a music professor from the same college. I invited both them and our pastor to dinner at our house.

In the course of the meal the artist said, “Frank, do you remember that blue wall by the walkway into the cafeteria?” To which Frank, the musician, answered, , “I’m sorry, Jim, I never told you this, but I’m not able to see colors. I’m entirely colorblind.” Jim just stared at him, and Frank’s wife said,”It’s true! I buy all his clothes so he doesn’t have to worry about being mismatched.” The table conversation veered into exclamations and questions. Jim seemed entirely confounded , and almost unable to accept Frank’s confession. Eventually our pastor changed the subject and the dinner progressed. It looked as if the artist in Jim felt somehow betrayed by his friend. Frank and Jim had taught on the same campus, and their families had been friends, but Frank had never confided his secret to his artist friend.

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet speaks God’s words of disappointment to the Hebrew people: All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations, people who continually provoke me” (Isaiah 65:2) What God sought in His people was a loving and trusting relationship that would bring joy to both Him and His people. He had already demonstrated his protection in getting them out of Egypt and into a richly fertile land. He had walked with them for forty years, showing Himself in the pillar of fire and of cloud.. He had given them laws with which to build a virtuous nation, and hidden nothing they could need of His own character from them.: Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The Ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.

Jim and Frank did not remain in touch, as Frank was retired and Jim still teaching and traveling. God, however, never lost touch with His people. Though they turned away, God sent His son, who will one day reconcile the Hebrew people because, Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! (Romans 9:5)

Love in Him,

Prue