Shake It, Shake It, Baby...

Sitting at Starbucks this morning to do this and listening to a very young Michael Jackson sing ABC, 123. The chorus, as most of you are aware, or the bridge--or whatever you call that little insert--goes, "Shake it, shake it, baby," and then repeats that several times.

So I am reading the very serious Haggai...which is actually a word of hope today as the Lord of hosts tells us to take courage for God is with us...and then God says, "Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come..."

I remembered as a young teen, panning for gold in Colorado. You scooped a bunch of sediment off the bottom of a cold river, then sifted it through a special pan to find the gold nuggets. I didn't find anything, but I had this image of God shaking earth and sea and nations to settle the muck to the bottom and let the treasure come to the top to be used for God's purposes.

Somehow that made our current situation in the country and in the world much more palatable.

Shake it, shake it, baby!

Haggai 2:1-9

In the second year of King Darius, 1 in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: 2 Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, 3 Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? 4 Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; 7 and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lordof hosts. 9 The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.