This series of devotions are focused around Soren Kierkegaard’s “Christian Discourses etc.” The biblical text to consider during these devotions is: Matthew 6:24-34.
So benevolent are these teachers (lilies and birds) towards the pupil, so benevolent, so humane, so worthy of their divine commission. If thou hast forgotten something, they are willing at once to repeat it to thee, and to repeat and repeat, so that at last thou mightest learn it; if thou doest learn nothing from them, they do not reproach thee, but merely continue with rare zeal to go on with the instruction, concerned only with teaching; and if thou dost learn something from them, they attribute it all to thee, act as if they had no part in it, as if it were not to them thou owest it They despair of no one, however indocile (one) may be, and they do not require slavish dependence upon them, even of (the one) who has learnt the most. Ah, ye marvelous teachers, if one were to learn from you nothing else; if only (one) learned to teach, how much (one) would have learnt!
To teach of the grace of God is to never give up…to again and again lay before others that grace which is beyond our imagination and yet is indeed, real and everlasting. The teaching becomes the message…never ending…always patient…giving and then giving again. When we share the vision of the Reign of God with one another, how can we not be reminded of its eternal word that knows no end? That is how our teaching is shaped. The lilies and the birds never stop being the message…it is their entire being and they can announce nothing but their very being…again and again and again. I know when I teach, I want to see some results…my results. And yet, our God lifts up a vision for us and we disregard it…or take only the part we like or can incorporate into our way of seeing the world. But our God never lets our reaction or lack of a reaction alter the message of the vision. The vision continues. The vision will always be available for us so that we can enter at any time…in any place. There is no “cut off” date for just when one might be set, the vision is spelled out again even when we thought there was no more opportunity to step within God’s Reign.
Connection: Over and over, our God calls to us to remind us of the vision that is laid out for us. Yes, we may choose to go different ways, but the voice of God never stops lifting up the vision and inviting us to see again…all things. Take a look.
Graceful Teacher and Patient Friend, it is by you persistence that we are pulled into the light of your blessed Reign. We give you thanks and ask that your Spirit of new life continue to open up doors that lead us to journeys along your gracious way. Amen.
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