Fulfilled

Passage: Isaiah 54:1-8; 55:1-3; 56:1-8

The film Magnolia introduces a procession of characters who, for various reasons, have lived tragically unfulfilled lives. One of them is Donnie Smith, a grown-up quiz show prodigy whose genius disappeared after he was struck by lightning. He’s now a socially stunted adult who works as a delivery driver and spends his evenings pining for a local bartender. The sense of emptiness and unrequited desire that comprises Magnolia’s central theme is captured perfectly in Donnie’s words: “I don’t know where to put things. I have all this love to give, you know? I just don’t know where to put it.”

In a remarkable three-chapter sequence, Isaiah prophesies to a world full of unfulfilled people. Chapters 54-56 represent a kind of verbal triptych in which God uses three different metaphors to describe people whose plight he holds close to his heart. The types of people mentioned are: a woman struggling with infertility; people who are hungry and poor; and those pushed to the margins of society because of physical deformity or ethnicity. God addresses the sorrow and longing represented by each type. God promises fulfillment; satisfaction; and inclusion. God listens to the cries of those people whose lives have felt incomplete and whose needs have gone unmet. God, whose ultimate plan is the restoration of his good creation, promises to restore the broken hearts and lives of his broken people - to be the fulfillment of an unfulfilled people.