Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Strengthen the hands, make firm the knees

Monday, December 10, 2018

From Isaiah 35
See the glory of the Lord, behold the splendor of our God. Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, and say to those whose hearts are frightened: "Be strong, fear not. Here is your God!"

We can't wait to see Mary Poppins Returns. It's out in a week, and Dick Van Dyke will, hopefully, be in the audience at the premiere. At age 92, he danced and pranced again, just like Bert in that first Mary Poppins decades ago (1964).

In a Parade magazine interview last week he remembered, "Everyone on the set was surprised I could do it. And nobody was more surprised than I was!"

I'll bet Dick Van Dyke loves this text from Isaiah. It appeals to old people.

Older people.

People feeling their age. Like me.

Because although my body wears out, hope springs eternal that some tune-up or other will make me new again. New bearings, new spark plugs, new air filter. Fresh oil. Get out on the highway!

"Streams will burst forth in the desert. Burning sands will become pools. A highway will be there, called the holy way. It is for those with a journey to make, and on it the redeemed will walk, singing, crowned with everlasting joy."

I hold Isaiah's images in my mind and know how delicately they are balanced. Dick Van Dyke seemed to be so superbly awkward all his life, but still, every day even now he does a little dancing. If he goes tumbling down, he gets up again. "To sing like nobody can hear you, dance like nobody can see you and love like you've never been hurt," he says. "That's a good way to live."

People around here know he grew up in Danville, Illinois. Just thirty miles away, he made that city famous. Several other entertainers, including van Dyke's cousin Gene Hackman, Bobby Short, Donald O'Connor, and his brother Jerry, lived in Danville at the same time. There must have something in the water.

Mom is three years older than Dick Van Dyke. She smiles more and is more content now than perhaps ever before in her life. Her glimpses into the past and future are short, and she lives her life in each moment as it comes.

I love her so much for that, for showing me how to walk the highway. "Singing and crowned with everlasting joy."

Lord let me live my life today with the breath I breathe. Claiming the life you have given me to live. Surrounded by your glory, free to stop seeking my own. Walking on the path you make straight for me.

Devotions Archive

Strengthen the hands, make firm the knees

Monday, December 10, 2018