Home > Reading > NALC Devotions – June 6, 2017

Today’s readings: Isaiah 63:15–64:9; 2 Timothy 1:15–2:13; Luke 11:37-52

What can we be sure of? Of what can we be certain? “Death and taxes,” says the old adage.

But maybe the adage is too old. And maybe the people who think that way — seven-year-olds — are too old as well. That’s when they start believing death is certain, final, and irreversible.

Why place our certainty in the hands of people as grizzled and jaded as seven-year-olds? Of what were we certain before that? Of what were we certain, for example, at age two? We knew we were loved.

Jesus is a great proponent of early sagacity. He prayed: “I thank you, Father… that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Matt 11:25). Once, we were certain we were loved. Then death broke our horizon and we weren’t so sure.

But Good Friday and Easter restore the certainty of love. The abundance of Christ’s love for us surpasses the evidence for death’s finality. We are children again, swept up in a love that promises: “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him” (2 Tim 2:11).

Prayer: Help us believe again, O Christ. Amen.

Today’s devotion was written by Gary Blobaum, Pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, in Sumter, SC.

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