Tuesday, January 1

Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 106; Deuteronomy 8:1-10; Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 21:1-6a

Let me begin by thanking you (my blogging community) for the gift of accountability you have given me this fall and winter. Not only have you been an encouragement to keep up my daily devotions – you have also encouraged me to live the values I profess in my daily entries. Case in point, yesterday’s entry concerning a ministry of reconciliation. Within 30 minutes of finishing my entry, the Spirit compelled me to call the family member from whom I was estranged and reach out in a Spirit of reconciliation. Nearly 2 hours later, our conversation concluded. Of course there is still work to be done in that relationship, but I had the opportunity to experience a ministry of reconciliation first hand. Thank you!!

Now, on to today’s readings. I couldn’t help but connect right away with today’s reading from Deuteronomy as it fit perfectly for us as we enter a New Year. In the passage, we hear a description of just what lies before them as the people stand poised to enter into their new reality – a place “with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills, a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing, a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills…” (Deuteronomy 8:7-9 – NIV). What would happen if we conceptualized the New Year we are entering today in similar terms? What if we saw the New Year as a time and place FULL of blessings and possibilities? How would we respond as we live into such a concept? Hopefully, with the only response that seems appropriate. “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you” (Deuteronomy 8:10). Friends, my prayer for you and I is two fold: first, may we have the courage to reach out and partake of the many blessings with which God has set for the table of our lives; and second, may we spend the rest of the time living in an attitude of thanksgiving as we praise God for the fertile land of our lives that God has blessed us with. May we praise God through word, thought, and action. Til next time…