Created. Shaped. Summoned

If you had to describe how you were as a kid, what descriptive words might you use? For me, the first two that jump to mind are scared… and adventurous. I know, one is like a lock and the other is the party behind the door. I was constantly in a wrestling match in my mind.

My imagination has always functioned like one of those playdough contraptions, where you can switch out different parts to create all sorts of shapes. This one makes it spaghetti like, and that one forms a long tube shape.

My mind constantly does that with life. As a kid, I’d wake up in the morning wondering what would be made, shaped, formed, and squeezed out of the hours and minutes that dance within the daylight. And yet, I carried a resistance that was driven by a fear of getting hurt or lost or wrecking something.

It’s still pretty accurate of me. I awaken to wonder. I do not ease out of bed, or hit snooze, because I don’t set an alarm. My internal alarm jingles around 5am each day, and as my eyes open, my mind begins swirling and shaping… everything.

I feel called to bring words to the wonder that is this life.

I love reading something that is more than true, when it’s true in reading and then burps with truth through experience. When we fall into those moments and the heart yells, “I KNEW IT!”

That kind of true.

Which takes us to a text:

But now, this is what the LORD says—

he who created you, Jacob,

he who formed you, Israel:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name; you are mine. —Isaiah 43:1

The Hebrew word for create is, bārā', and it’s spoken of Jacob. He being a central figure, or father, of the Hebrew people. Jacob, you were created. But along life’s journey, Jacob wrestles with the Divine… and he is transformed. He changes. Yes, he gets a new name, Israel, but it’s as if his heart and very way of life is formed anew. Exactly.

The Hebrew word for formed in this passage is, yāṣar (pronounced yawt-sare), and it means to form, fashion or craft. Yep, like playdough in an artist’s hands.

It’s as if Jacob and Israel are two different people, one created and the other formed and shaped…. through life’s wrestling match. Yep.

And the poet and prophet, Isaiah, is not talking to a person, he is speaking to a people. A nation. The people of Israel. They have experienced a lot. They have been through life’s trials and tribulations, getting lost and experiencing Divine rescue. And through the prophet Isaiah, the Divine is speaking boldly to them of a New Exodus, a bigger and wider and deeper rescue.

So do not fear, for the Divine is rescuer and redeemer, and you have been given a new name for this new identity. You have been summoned forward by your forever name, so do not fear.

This isn’t simply a story you’ve read or an idea you thought, this is the life that you have experienced. You have experienced rescue and redemption. To leave Egypt, you had to travel through the waters of the Red Sea. To move from being Jacob, which the name means to deceive, you had to travel through the fires of life, being formed and shaped into Israel, which means, wrestles with God.

Which takes us to verse 2:

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

It’s littered with their past experiences and stories. So do not be afraid, because the Divine has been with you and will be with you. The Divine rescues and redeems. Do not fear. You are no longer Jacob, you are Israel. That name was given to you on the other side of wrestling with the deepest depths and darkest nights. You have wrestled with that which is deepest within, and you have overcome.

You have been… Created. Shaped. Summoned.

Do not fear. You have a new name. A forever name. Enjoy the adventure.