Saturday, October 12, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Babies
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This egalitarian attitude is beset on all sides, but it remains true. Economically as well, even though Paul did not mention this. I think of a Café in West Union, Illinois, where we had lunch in June and again yesterday afternoon on the way to Evansville. Click on this link to see the bulletin board outside the door to the restaurant.
If you need a meal, pick a meal. Pay it forward. Have a great day!
Of course we found our way to the restaurant again! We didn’t add a paid-up meal to the board, but we wanted to and will next time. West Union is a tiny town on the way to our family home in Indiana, and this town has carved out a large place in my heart. Neither slave nor free person. All of us are one.
Look to the Lord in his strength; seek to serve him every moment. Recall his wondrous deeds.
And follow as best you can in his footsteps. Do some wondrous deeds yourself. I am talking to myself, of course, not so much to anyone else. Get on the ball and do a wondrous deed. Not God-size, but David-size. Right?
A woman from the crowd called out to Jesus. “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed!”
I think of my friends and family who are right-now-pregnant, holding their children close within their wombs, barely discerning the sound of heartbeats and strange digestive noises, knowing how precious and strong the umbilical cord is from their bodies to their baby’s body. Talk about a wondrous deed! They can be found on any given day singing songs to their babies inside them, all these new and little ones who are fearfully and wonderfully made.
The relationship between those moms and their babies does not begin at birth. It begins at conception. And that friendship, that intimacy continues right on, right on into the mama’s life, through her years and years and years. She will never forget. This is how God made her.
Blessed is the womb that carried you!
Sarah was 90 plus. Elizabeth was 70 plus, I guess.
Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
Because Elizabeth, bearer of a miracle herself, felt that miracle leap for joy inside her. Mary was a virgin, yet she became pregnant and carried her baby to birth, the baby Jesus, and she rejoiced. She felt the baby move, she sang own songs to Jesus, she lifted herself heavy with pregnancy onto a donkey and rode to Bethlehem.
All of this would come. Now, resting with her cousin Elizabeth, the women simply sat, sipped tea and looked enraptured into each other’s eyes.
My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
Welcome to the world, little ones. We’re so glad you’re here. You’ll have all the time you need to become the children God made you to be. Thank you for filling our hearts with hope and joy.
(Galatians 3, Psalm 105, Luke 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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