Ho!

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.
                                                          --Isaiah 55:1


Jr. High kids think the beginning of this verse is pretty hilarious.

But I love the theatrics of it.  When read well, the flow and power of this verse come alive through that first word:


           Ho!


Try it out.  It's fun.

Come, buy wine and milk
                              without money and without price.

On special occasions -- high holiday meals and celebratory events -- I love to savor a glass of red wine.  It is rich and deep and heady.  It has a spark that heightens and deepens a meal out from the ordinary.

Isn't it fun that Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine took something ordinary and made it extraordinary? (perhaps a foretaste of Jesus' transformative power in our ordinary lives . . . )

But here we are -- offered extra-ordinance without money and without price.

And milk!  I only recently discovered the richness of hot chocolate made with whole milk.  I had to resort to using my daughter's milk one afternoon . . . and could not believe the depth I had been missing all these years!


Come, buy wine and milk

      richness, depth, spark

              celebratory, savory, extraordinary

                          without money and without price.


           A gift!             


A gift of extravagance from our extravagant God.


Come.