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