Your most beloved things are not always your most perfect things.

And your most beloved relationships are not always your most perfect relationships.

Remember your “blankie?” Come on now, you all had one. And it was in perfect shape, right? It was the rattiest, most stained, most beat up thing anyone has ever seen. But the condition it was in mattered not a wit at nap time, or bedtime, or cry time.

Or what about that stuffed animal? Come on, now. You all had one. And it was in perfect shape, right? No matter how unstuffed your stuffed animal, or how smelly and gross it was, all that mattered was that your special, indispensable friend was within arms’ length when you needed a comforter.

Isaiah 40:1 offers the ultimate “comfort food” – at least for those of us who have outgrown blankies…