When the Rescue Capsule Opened

On October 13, 2010, the first of thirty-three Chilean miners stepped out of a narrow rescue capsule after sixty-nine days trapped half a mile underground in the San José copper mine near Copiapó. Each man emerged wearing specially designed dark glasses. After more than two months in the dim glow of headlamps, their eyes had grown so sensitive that even moderate light caused searing pain. The sunlight they had once taken for granted now overwhelmed them completely.

That is something like what happened to Isaiah in the temple. When the glory of the Lord filled the room — the seraphim crying "Holy, holy, holy" — the prophet didn't celebrate. He collapsed. "Woe is me! I am undone!" he cried. The blinding holiness of God exposed what the dim light of ordinary life had hidden. Isaiah suddenly saw himself clearly: a man of unclean lips among an unclean people.

But God did not leave him crumpled on the temple floor. A seraph flew to him carrying a live coal from the altar and pressed it to his lips. "Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." The same holy presence that exposed Isaiah's unworthiness also made him clean.

And then — adjusted, forgiven, restored — Isaiah heard the voice of the Almighty: "Whom shall I send?" And the man who moments before could barely stand now answered without hesitation: "Here am I. Send me."