Father, I have already been up for several hours. I had my bus route early, worked some more on my church project and thought it best to set that aside and spend some one-on-one time with You. You’ve been by my side all morning but I need to put all distractions aside. Speak, for I am listening.
Mark 3:31-35 (<<click to read the passage)
This is one of those passages that can make some people squirm. It can make you feel a little uncomfortable. But we must understand, yes, Jesus was fully God and fully man, but he was without sin. Where we run into trouble here is when we project our sinful mindsets into Jesus’ reaction to being told his family had come to see him. We may see flippancy or a lack of love for His own mother even! But when we really think things through, we realize that Jesus’ motives for saying what He said was pure.
Where we tend to make His comments sound exclusive, in reality, what He is being inclusive! His family was important to Him but so is everybody else! He loves us all!
If anything, what Jesus said should make us take a closer look at our own mindsets and how we interact with others – especially loved ones.
How many friends do you have? How much time do you spend with them? In today’s tech culture that can be answered a couple of ways. If we are talking Facebook, I have 507, my wife has a few less – 352, and my son as several more – 789. A cousin’s daughter has 2,333! A friend’s dog has 157 friends!
We speak of them as “friends” and many of them are, but some are barely acquaintances. How many of them really know us? How many of them do we really know?
It’s pretty easy to “like” someone or something from our cellphone or laptop but does that response really impact us? Do those interactions draw us closer? Do they deepen our relationships? Probably not a whole lot.
Lord Jesus, as Your body please help us to do less “liking” and more loving! Very little risk is taken when we peck at a screen or a keyboard but love? Love can be risky. Love can get messy. Our world is a cold, cold place of our own making, may we heat it up as we let our light shine! May we draw others into Your warm embrace! Amen.
Feb 21st, 2019, Thurs, 11:00 am
