Scripture Verses that caught my attention today: Nehemiah 9:30-31 Many years you were patient with them, and warned them by your spirit through your prophets; yet they would not listen. Therefore you handed them over to the peoples of the lands. 31 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.
Observation: Nehemiah understood the people’s earlier plights to be a result of their disobedience to God, yet he also saw God as incredibly merciful and gracious.
Application: Today is the anniversary of the baptism of our middle child, a son. The day holds a little extra special significance for me because on the day he was born six weeks earlier X number of years ago, I learned that I had somehow or another severely injured one of my vocal chords. As a result, I had been using an artificial larynx ever since then in an effort to help the vocal chord rest and recover. The total healing process took a couple more months, but on October 13th I offered my first public non-artificial larynx-assisted words; “[name of son], I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
To this day the actual cause of the vocal chord injury is a mystery.
I don’t think the injury was a punishment from God of some sort—even though, as a human being, I’m sure there were plenty of reasons for which God most certainly could have punished me. After all, Nehemiah’s recounting of the faults of people long ago bears remarkable similarity to our own. But I do think that God was incredibly gracious and merciful through the whole ordeal. I was blessed with a congregation that was gracious, a family that was gracious (especially my wife who had been counting on me to provide lots of help when the new baby arrived and suddenly had a husband who couldn’t talk!), an intern who was gracious, and colleagues and neighbors who were gracious too. Oddly enough, one person—who for some reason or another seemed to be rather irked with me at the time—ended up being the one who most insisted that I get my voice checked out in the first place and, in so doing, probably saved me from permanent injury. Indeed, lest we forget, God’s graciousness often comes from surprising corners. Nehemiah would likely concur.
Prayer: Lord, thanks for the various experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant, that drive us to see ourselves as rooted in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Readings today included: Nehemiah 9-10, Acts 2)
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