Through the Bible in one year - Day 17

Genesis: Ouch! Alright, there is more to the reading than just my knee-jerk reaction of ouch, but that is what made me stop and think when I read of all those men getting the ‘mark’ of the covenant. It can’t have been too easy. While I don’t have to worry about that experience personally, I know that like Abram, we all receive a mark of the covenant, even if it is invisible to the eye. We are sealed at baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever. This circumcision is like a gang tattoo except it isn’t in view like a tattoo – but it does mark us as members of a family, and there are rights and responsibilities that go along with this membership.

God promises Abram and Sarai, and gives them new names – better names, when he changes them to Abraham and Sarah. This speaks to them and to those who meet them of the promises God has made to them. For me, I think I need to be mindful of the mark of relationship and belonging that God places on each of us he calls by name, and be more ready to show the blessings and my gratitude for them when God acts in my life. Let my life show this good news of being marked as Christ’s own forever.

Here is a prayer from David that each of us can adopt as our own:

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations, O Lord God! And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant. For your servant's sake, O Lord, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, in making known all these great things. There is none like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. (1 Chronicles 17:16-20)

Psalm 16:6

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Today’s readings: Psalm 16, Genesis 17, 1 Chronicles 17, Luke 10:25-42