Thursday September 14th, 2017 Holy Cross Day John 3:13-17
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son?" (verse 16)
Every morning, I take a multivitamin before my breakfast. I stand at the cupboard, reach for the vitamin bottle, shake one tablet into my hand, pop it in my mouth and take a drink of water. One afternoon, when I had developed a headache, I walked over to the cupboard to take a Tylenol and-you guessed it-out of habit I ended up taking a vitamin. It was about 10 minutes later that I realized what I had done so I went back and got a Tylenol. Familiar routine sometimes gets in the way of an important task.
The same is true for familiar words or messages. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that sometimes we pray the Lord’s Prayer without paying attention to what we are praying. Sometimes we read Psalm 23 or John 3:16 without thinking about what we are reading, because these passages are so familiar.
But then a little while later, we realize that our minds had wandered away from praying or reading and we go back over it with the intention to focus. And there we hear the good news again, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Wow! That is great news!
Thank you, God. Amen. — DBB
Contributed by Good News!
Every morning, I take a multivitamin before my breakfast. I stand at the cupboard, reach for the vitamin bottle, shake one tablet into my hand, pop it in my mouth and take a drink of water. One afternoon, when I had developed a headache, I walked over to the cupboard to take a Tylenol and-you guessed it-out of habit I ended up taking a vitamin. It was about 10 minutes later that I realized what I had done so I went back and got a Tylenol. Familiar routine sometimes gets in the way of an important task.
The same is true for familiar words or messages. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that sometimes we pray the Lord's Prayer without paying attention to what we are praying. Sometimes we read Psalm 23 or John 3:16 without thinking about what we are reading, because these passages are so familiar.
But then a little while later, we realize that our minds had wandered away from praying or reading and we go back over it with the intention to focus. And there we hear the good news again, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." Wow! That is great news!
