Devotion for Being Apart -
June 18
We will share a devotion Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays through Fridays.
- Kara
- Kara
Today the confirmation class and I met to talk about what we're reading in our Action Bibles. These are funny pandemic-era gatherings, facetiming from wherever we are: in bedrooms, on porches, buckled into back seats of cars. We talk about something that we thought was strange, or confusing, or interesting from the bible reading.
We've made it into the wilderness with the Hebrews, and today one of them commented how over, and over, and over again, the Israelite people forgot that God takes care of them. God keeps getting them out of impossible circumstances, and they say, "You're our God and we will always worship you!" Then the next page they've boiled down their jewelry and made an idol because it took Moses too long to get back from the mountain and they got impatient and anxious without a leader.
But God stays faithful. And once in what we read, God was ready to give up on them and Moses reminded God of God's promise to be faithful, and wondered aloud what the neighboring people would think of God if it turns out the God of the Israelites doesn't keep promises. (Those biblical folks were so brazen in their conversations with the Divine!)
There are all sorts of things in the bible I forgot were there. And we are stumbling onto them in graphic novel form. Today we read Aaron's blessing over the freed slaves, "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you peace." This is the blessing that my husband has prayed over our kids at bedtime since their birth. And here is its origin: a disoriented, exhausted people, freed from slavery but stuck in the wilderness, learning how to trust God and messing up a lot. And here is God, faithful, again, and again, and again, meeting them in impossible situations and reminding them they belong to God and God will continue to take care of them.
We are part of a long and ancient story, filled with confused, impatient and anxious people, messing up and learning to trust, and centered on an eternally steadfast and faithful God.
Thanks be to God.
We've made it into the wilderness with the Hebrews, and today one of them commented how over, and over, and over again, the Israelite people forgot that God takes care of them. God keeps getting them out of impossible circumstances, and they say, "You're our God and we will always worship you!" Then the next page they've boiled down their jewelry and made an idol because it took Moses too long to get back from the mountain and they got impatient and anxious without a leader.
But God stays faithful. And once in what we read, God was ready to give up on them and Moses reminded God of God's promise to be faithful, and wondered aloud what the neighboring people would think of God if it turns out the God of the Israelites doesn't keep promises. (Those biblical folks were so brazen in their conversations with the Divine!)
There are all sorts of things in the bible I forgot were there. And we are stumbling onto them in graphic novel form. Today we read Aaron's blessing over the freed slaves, "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you peace." This is the blessing that my husband has prayed over our kids at bedtime since their birth. And here is its origin: a disoriented, exhausted people, freed from slavery but stuck in the wilderness, learning how to trust God and messing up a lot. And here is God, faithful, again, and again, and again, meeting them in impossible situations and reminding them they belong to God and God will continue to take care of them.
We are part of a long and ancient story, filled with confused, impatient and anxious people, messing up and learning to trust, and centered on an eternally steadfast and faithful God.
Thanks be to God.
CONNECTING RITUAL:
Perhaps tonight before bed, whatever time that is in each of our homes, we can pray in this way, and so join our souls with each other and the people of the whole earth:
Maybe tonight we can pray that blessing on ourselves, on each other. Placing a hand on a head (partner, child, dog, your own) say these words,
The Lord bless you and keep you,
The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you,
The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.
or
God loves you and holds you.
May God smile on you and meet you with all the grace you need.
May God look you full in the face, and fill you with peace.
or, if you're alone:
God loves me and holds me.
God smiles on me and meets me with all the grace I need.
God looks me full in the face, and fills me with peace.
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