Come for the drink, stay for the belonging!

Lily Cathcart March 23, 2025 5 2

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Isaiah 55: 1-9 (NRSVA)

1

Ho, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.

2 

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
    and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.

3 

Incline your ear, and come to me;
    listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
    my steadfast, sure love for David.

4 

See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
    a leader and commander for the peoples.

5 

See, you shall call nations that you do not know,
    and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
    for he has glorified you.

6 

Seek the Lord while he may be found,
    call upon him while he is near;

7 

let the wicked forsake their way,
    and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

8 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

9 

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

What does it mean to belong?

I am still working that out and it may take my whole lifetime.

The times I have felt it, were all encompassing, warm and surprising.

I used to think that belonging meant changing who I was to fit in. I was not alone in this belief, especially when I was a teenager, and I still catch myself thinking it now. But time, grace and God have helped me to appreciate that the feeling of belonging is being understood, being seen and  welcomed.

God welcomes us in our entirety. God knows us already and has already opened a door leading to a table with two drinks (insert your drink of choice, for me it's hot squash) and two chairs where we can sit and sink into belonging with God.

As you go about today, why not ask yourself what table you have set out for yourself. Is it a rickety little thing, is it there at all? Is it comfy and well used? Investigate that space in your mind today and try to welcome yourself, your whole self. Just as God does. Let yourself belong.

Prayer:

Dear God of belonging

Thank you that you hold safe that place with you

That you welcome us to belong with you

Teach us to hold that space open for ourselves too

And to become someone with whom others can feel safe to belong.

Amen