Quiet Devotions is a daily devotion based on one of the readings from the Daily Lectionary (as it appears in the back of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Augsburg Fortress, 2006). All biblical quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) unless otherwise noted. May these devotions help bring you in closer relationship with the Triune God.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Year B, December 29


Inspired by Matthew 12:46-50

“And pointing to his disciples, [Jesus] said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’”  Matthew 12:49-50

Many children visualize God as an elderly man with white hair and a long white beard, wearing flowing white robes and sitting on a cloud in heaven, far above the earth.  Many of those children grow into adults holding onto that same image, and believe that God and heaven are just so far away from day to day life.  They find themselves unable to relate to such a distant God.

But God became flesh and was born a man.  Jesus lived on earth, facing many of the struggles that we ourselves continue to face today.  Jesus celebrated with friends, wept over lost loved ones, suffered rejection and betrayal, tried to find balance between taking care of others and taking care of himself, and struggled with obeying the harder obligations of following God.  In short, Jesus is someone we can relate to.  Even though he is fully God, he is also fully human, and thus the bridge between us and the heavenly Father.  While we may struggle to relate to some divine being sitting up on a cloud, that divine being has related to us on our level, in our lives, and has adopted us into his own family.

Let us pray.  Father God, you provided us a way to know the unknowable.  Help us to obey your will, that we may be heirs with Christ.  Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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