The focus of Isaiah’s objection and God’s subsequent healing is the lips. The mouth holds much power. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “Words create worlds.”
God links the mouth with creative power. Creation originated with God’s speech. God spoke and everything we see, touch, and love came into being. And when Christ came to live with us, side by side, we came to know him as the “Word made flesh.”
We’ve all experienced times when words someone spoke destroyed us inside. Or times when a word of encouragement changed everything.
Like Isaiah, God births anew our mouths today, asking us to use our lips to create a world of blessing. The words you pray over your children, partners, friends, those you love, even those you can’t stand, all enliven the world with light.
Each night as my husband and I put our two-year-old daughter to bed, we say over her a prayer I wrote based on the fruit of the Spirit: words that remind us what a life after God’s own heart looks like and how God produces this in and through us even when we struggle to see it. I encourage you to pray this prayer on behalf of someone you love. Insert her or his name. Maybe write it down on a scrap of paper, in a journal, or an e-mail. Let your heart rest there, giving thanks for this person and knowing God prays this over you every day.