Isaiah 52:7-10

7 How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
    who bring good tidings,
    who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
    “Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
    together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
    they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together,
    you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.

My three year old has hobbit feet. I can’t even figure out what shoe size he is, his feet are so wide and flat and adorable. He pads along, sure footed – climbing trees, riding a bike, leaping from the top bunk over a sharp cornered wooden storage unit to land in a huge pile of cushions, be still my beating heart! I know both of my children by the sound of their small feet slapping the tile or clomping up the stairs or, most unfortunately due to its frequency, flopping across the creaking wood floor at 3 am to rouse one of us from our slumber.

Feet and voices. Eyes and arms. Isaiah dips into the poetry of the body to sing his song of joy and comfort. When “the Lord [lays] bare his holy arm”, I envision an arm wrestling match at an enormous rough hewn wooden table, raucous and unwinnable for anyone but God. I also see another side of God, a strong, capable woman in the same room who has rolled her sleeves (and maybe her eyes) to tackle a mound of bread dough or a farm chore or the birth of a baby…while she simultaneously manages a hundred other tasks.

These feats of strength, every kind of strength imaginable, are the gifts of our community. For we were once ruins, and now we are comforted and redeemed. How will we each use our strengths to proclaim peace and bring good tidings across the mountains in our lives?

God, place our feet on the path that is best for us. Teach us the song our voices need to sing. Help our eyes see with clarity, give us good hard work and the strength of many arms to do it. Our bodies bring us closer to you, as your body comes closer to us. Amen.