Clothe yourself with Love Col. 3:14

  Those who are parents might remember the life of toddlers in your home. They really do what they want! They are so curious because everything around them is so interesting. I remember reading how to toddler proof your home! Knives, electrical cords have to be put away so kids may not get hurt while exploring their world. It is fascinating to me to notice similarities between the dynamics of parent/child relationship with our relationship with God. In Genesis we were given the world to explore and enjoy, to have authority over everything, but there were boundaries for our own safety. Just like toddlers we have often gone rogue. You know something is wrong when everything is too quiet, the parent frantically starts looking for the child’s whereabout. All of a sudden, you find your toddler with layers of Vaseline on the face and the hair full of baby powder! I may or may not be speaking out of experience! We also have messed up, time and time again, and God knows how goofy we real

  Our OT lesson, brings a story of a powerful man on edge. He is ill of Leprosy which is a serious contagious skin disease. We can only imagine how frustrating it was for an Army General! No more NATO meetings, may be no more friends, dermatologists may have tried but to no avail. We come to discover that eventually his healing would come from an unlikely source: His own household! Unfortunately, often it takes a crisis for us to open our eyes to see where God is at work in our lives. When our frustrations are high, we don’t see well! our responses may vary: Some of us may just stay still, not knowing what to do, and others may be combative like Jonah before he ended up in the belly of the fish and realize we cannot outrun God! In the middle of our anxiety and frustrations, we are more likely to totally miss God’s footsteps in our lives. This General found God’s footsteps in his own home, they led to his healing. Today my hope is that, we would discover from Holy Scriptures that,

  Our Gospel lesson is startling/shocking to us to say the least! It’s one of those things that makes you think deeply about life, and about making it count. It’s as if a curtain was opened so that we can see what our afterlife will look like. I tried to stay with the story and realized something: The story isn’t about the rich and the poor as much as it is about the wicked and the righteous as the Bible often describes it, but more like selfishness and godliness. Could it be possible that we are born with selfishness? I mean think about it, who teach toddlers to say this is mine! Dr. Peter Blake believes that: “ As we get older, we get better at managing our wants and needs in a more socially acceptable manner, but face it: We never outgrow our desire for possessions. We always define ourselves, at least in part, by what we own ”. Ok, you might not agree with Dr. Blake, but look at how respond to ads targeting what we desire: On one hand, we can choose to lean into the desire,