A one-off love – unshakable and immovable
by Joanne Corney
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Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed (Isaiah 54:10).
When mountains around the world shake, we’re visually presented with news images. It may be through natural disasters like volcanic eruptions or events like explosions in war. When mountains or hills shake – whatever the cause – the impact is significant. Even only seeing these occurrences via visual media leaves me momentarily stunned and disquieted. I find my thoughts then run to the event’s victims and their fear and shock, their losses and grief, their probable sense of displacement and vulnerability, their brokenness of body, mind, home and family – devastation. ‘Confronting and overwhelming’ is too weak a description of what happens to people when the mountains they live with shake.
While sitting with the readings for today, I found myself attached to verse 10. I share my experience as it may be similar to yours. This Scripture reaches for an example we can identify and engage with on various levels just by imagining a mountain shaking. Imagining this event gives me shivers and a sharp, small dose of anxiety. But, straight away in this verse, the Scripture tells and reassures us that God’s unfailing love for us is not shakeable like the mountain or removable like the hill – this love will not be shaken. The description in this verse throws up a picture of something deeply disastrous – a mountain shaking or a hill removed – and implies the subsequent impacts. One starts to feel a response to this imagery. Then straight away, the verse redirects our minds. If what we think influences what we feel, this redirection of thought is closely followed by the response of one’s heart. Here then, on both mind and heart levels, this verse affirms that the absolute opposite of ‘mountains shaken or hills removed’ is what God’s love for us is like. The words of this verse carry us away from a ‘shaken’ to a ‘not shaken’ mindset and plant our focus on a one-off love. One like none other – the unfailing, unshakable love authored and given to us by God.
Merciful God, amid our difficulties and burdens, thank you that you remind us of your unfailing and unshakable love for us. Please bless us in our experience of your love. In the name of Christ, Amen.
Joanne Corney is an active member of the LCANZ in Queensland. She has served over many years in voluntary parish pastoral care, ministry and development, and representative roles. During the past seven years, she has worked in the delivery of aged-care chaplaincy for Lutheran Services. Joanne’s areas of service in the church stem from her varied professional roles in healthcare and personal roles in life.
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