A God for All Who Cannot Afford It

“Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.”

~Isaiah 55:1 (NIV).

I was in prison for the very first time recently. The lack of trust and the pungent officialdom certainly put me off the place very quickly. I immediately felt for all those who’re humbly and patiently enduring their incarcerations.

I also thought as I wandered through from security gate to the visitor’s area—as I gazed at the massive walls and warning signs everywhere—that God exists here! ‘I am here too,’ was the thought the Holy Spirit dropped into the centre of my consciousness.

God is a place where all can come and be entirely welcome, unconditionally. Of course, only those with a humble heart will want to come; there are far more “interesting” things to be chased in our world than God if you’ve got any semblance of active vice in you.

How wonderful is this message of God’s?

How welcome it greets us. Jesus had more time for the ones the world—and certainly officialdom—couldn’t have given a humbug for. He, indeed, went out of his way to comfort the lost, lonely and hopeless.

Those who couldn’t afford the most meagre things attracted the very best—something money cannot buy. ‘Come to the waters,’ the waters “welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).

These waters quench our thirst like nothing else; Jesus, the person, via the succeeding Holy Spirit, is our ticket to freedom of the soul, especially if we don’t have a cent to our name. This unconditional love of God is perhaps the only unconditional love some will ever know.

Yet, it is sufficient. God makes up for in the areas the world cannot possibly deliver upon. For this, we adore him!

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.