Delightful Messengers

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!” Isaiah 52:7

I thought my heart would burst with joy as I glimpsed our parents coming around the bend of the dusty African road.

They are here!!!! 

With them, they brought good news, comfort, and refreshment to our souls. Not to mention chocolate. We lived among a tribe in the bush of East Africa. We slept in a mud house, collected water from our tin roof, and read by lantern light at night. Beans and rice were regular fare. We hadn’t seen our family since we waved goodbye at the airport over a year earlier.

Once a month if the waters of the river were down, we drove through it and made the two-and-a-half-hour journey into the city. There we would visit a friend and plug in our laptops to the internet so we could read and send emails to the folks back home. My husband rigged a car battery that we charged each town visit and lugged back to the village. The battery was then passed around on weekly team days to charge laptops so we could write. 

We were always homesick for good tidings from family and friends back home.

Recently dear ones from our village reached out to us through Facebook video. Things have changed since we lived there twenty years ago. Everyone has a mobile phone. We chattered excitedly through our tears, me from my comfortable suburban home and them from under the baobab tree in Fatuma’s front yard. Technology had feet that day, and it brought good news and refreshment to our souls.

The world needs good news today. Are you homesick for peace and good tidings? 

The New English Translation draws out the Hebrew word picture of Isaiah 52:

How delightful it is to see approaching over the mountains the feet of a messenger who announces peace, a messenger who brings good news, who announces deliverance, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7

We are all messengers. Just like the joy sparked by our parents’ approach around the bend in the road, we can be delightful messengers to a homesick humanity.

What message do you announce? What news do you bring?

I wonder how the world would change if we determined today to be delightful messengers. #goodnews #encouragement #iamsecond Click To Tweet

Messengers who spark joy in those who see them coming. Bloggers, writers, social media posters, texters, friends, and strangers who announce peace, bring good news, announce deliverance, and remind God’s people, “Your God reigns!”

He’s got this. He’s got you. Everything’s gonna be okay.

Let’s take up the challenge and commit to being delightful messengers.

Lord, thank You for giving me the good news of your love and salvation. Use me to bring delight and comfort, peace and good news to the world around me. Amen.

@audreycfrank