“Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
That dwells apart in a woodland,
In the midst of Carmel.” Micah 7:14-15
We are His people that dwells apart in a woodland. Let’s unpack that! Dwell… this is our way of life, to be apart in a woodland. Apart… most of the time it means living counter-cultural. In a woodland… this is where God speaks. ( Midbar “in the woodland/wilderness” comes from the root dabar “Word.” ) We are apart because we are in the wilderness, listening to Him, sitting in the presence of the Lord.
Do you dwell apart in the woodland? Go into the wilderness with Jesus.
Be like Micah; beg the Lord to shepherd you with His staff.
But how can we be His people? I have run far from His path. I have let the cares and riches of this world choke me. I bear wounds from rejection, ridicule, and pieces of me have been torn away by false loves.
It hurts… But guess what? Jesus has wounds too. Look at His hands, look into His hands. The bloody, muscular hands have a piece torn away, displaced by the nail. Put yourself in His hands and kiss the bloody tissue, experience rest.
The spear that the soldier plunged into His side was no clean-edged Leatherman. Pull back on the jagged spear, drag His flesh and skin, and soak your face and body in the blood and water. Lick your lips and taste His blood. His wounds have power to heal ours.
The Lord is kind and merciful. Plunge into His merciful love.
Hope, people of God. Through the Cross is the Resurrection. Dwell apart in the woodland, and our Shepherd will lead us into the way of everlasting life.
I love you, Jesus, my Love. Grant that I may love you always and then do with me as you will. (from Stations of the Cross)
~Martha McAdams
