Marked as God’s Own
Preacher: The Rev. Logan Hurst
Scripture: Isaiah 44:1-8
Series: Planted in Promise
The tamarisk tree thrives where nothing else can—drawing deep from hidden water, growing green in dry lands, enduring even when all it drinks is salt and sorrow. The prophet Isaiah uses it as a picture of God’s people: planted by grace, sustained by living water, and claimed by name.
Even when the landscape is hard and the fear beetles gnaw at us—economic fear, political fear, relational fear, climate fear—we do not wither. Our roots are in a stream that doesn’t run dry. And we carry God’s name like a scar carved into our bark: not a wound, but a mark of belonging.
What name of God is written on you today? What name would you write on the rock of your life—the rock of your hope?
Reflection Questions
Where do you feel like you’re growing in hard or salty soil?
What fears are trying to eat away at your trust in God?
What keeps your roots connected to the stream of living water?
When have you felt God’s name carved into your life?
What name of God resonates most with you in this season?
