LEAVE: Lenten Devotion day 18

Lenten Photo Day 18

LEAVE

Then the LORD told Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's house, 

and go to the land that I will show you. I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. 

I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. 

Genesis 12:1-2

In the eight years I lived at my last home, every spring the same birds (at least the same kind of birds) would build a nest in the fern hanging on the front porch. There they would lay their eggs and mother and father would watch over them diligently. Soon we would hear the peeps and know they eggs had hatched. Mother and father never minded that we would take the ferns down for a look at the babies, they seemed proud to show them off. Then, all too soon would come the day when we would arrive home and hear nothing but silence coming from the nest. A quick look would reveal the truth: the babies had learned to fly. It was always a mix of emotions as we knew we would miss our daily visits with them but at the same time we were proud they had taken their leap of faith and left the nest - now their real life was beginning. 

Those little birds were a blessing to me each year and today as I look and see three empty nests in my front yard I am reminded of those blessings. I'm also reminded of God's call to Abram (Abraham) to leave the comfort of his nest (his family home) to go the land that God had chosen to build a nation. It must have been a huge step of faith for Abram to leave everything he had ever known and to leave the security of family and friends and yet God promised much if Abram would go. "I will bless you...I will make you a blessing to others."

So often we get caught up in the promise of God's blessing upon ourself but we miss that last little bit - to make us a blessing to others. That puts many of us way beyond our comfort zone. We are fine with God's blessing for us but to step out and allow God to use us to bless others - that we are not often sure about.

Today, contemplate that word LEAVE and ask yourself what God might be asking you to leave behind - how God might be asking you to step out of your comfortable nest of blessing - and be a blessing to someone else instead.

Be blessed...

LEAVE

be a blessing

"Look What We Did"

"Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."               Genesis 12:1-2


Today my husband and I are celebrating 21 years of marriage. We were 24 when we got married so we've now spent almost half of our lives together. I admit it is a pretty amazing feeling. I have been reflecting on family a lot lately. It was actually something that my husband said at his father's funeral that nudged me to this introspective mood.  You see, my husband unexpectedly lost both his parents this year. First his father and then 7 weeks later, his mother.  It has really shaken our family. At his father's funeral, my husband stood and told something he had witnessed once at one of our family gatherings.  It was a moment when the entire family was crowded into the tiny kitchen, no doubt fighting for a piece of birthday cake.  My husband witnessed his father just standing back and taking in the chaotic scene: Two parents, three children, two children in-law,  six granddaughters and accompanying boyfriends or husbands, and, at the time, one great grandson mixing it up around a four seat table.  He suddenly got his wife's attention, smiled broadly and swept his arms open, gesturing to the scene before his as if to say, "Look at this! We did this!"  They smiled lovingly at one another and jumped back into the family fray.

That story has caused me to look for those moments in my own life and has surprisingly drawn me to God's call to Abram in Genesis. Abram is directed to leave his family home and begin a totally new life under God's command.  I remember something similar in my wedding vows...that we were to leave our fathers and mothers and cling to one another. But it is the second part of God's command that catches my heart right now..."I will bless you...so that your will be a blessing."

That moment in my in-law's kitchen was my father-in-law realizing he had been blessed to be a blessing. God had provided  for him in life and he had shared it with his children and they were sharing it with their children, and now they are beginning to have children of their own and they will share it with them.

It is easy to get caught up in thinking the wonderful blessing of family is a personal matter. We give thanks to God for it and we cherish it and enjoy it. But we also can't forget that God blesses his children SO THAT they will be a blessing to others.  The blessing of a healthy marriage will become a blessing to the children of that marriage. It will radiate outward to be a blessing to the in-laws who are welcomed into the family later. It will spread to blessing the neighbors, friends, co-workers and church goers of the couple first blessed.

We leave our fathers and mothers homes and we enter into marriage but we are not to be in this marriage alone, as Abram was not on his journey alone. We are to go forward in this marriage with God as our guide and companion. In obedience to God we submit our marriage to God and he will pour out blessing upon it - not for the sole benefit of the couple - but so that their witness will then bless others.

We celebrate 21 years of marriage today. Our daughters will all too soon be starting families and lives of their own. My blessings from this marriage are too numerous to count and I realize I am guilty of selfishly trying to keep all of them for myself - but Abrams story reminds me they are not mine to keep. They are mine to share. I can't wait to celebrate the next 21 years of marriage...to watch the number gathered around my table grow to a chaotic mass fighting over birthday cake...to look at my beloved and smile knowingly...look what we did...look what God did through us.