4:25am Today I am meditating once again on Matthew 1:18-25. Once more the name Emmanuel leaps out at me and brings me joy. God is with us! What could be better than that? God is with us, and we call him Father! Yes, that is even better I think. And we don't just call him Father, we call him Abba, Papa, Daddy! As a little child to a father are we to our God. He cares for us, loves us and protects us and we just sit back and look at him with love and say, "Daddy!" when we see him.
He is with us everywhere and always, but in a very special way in the church, in His bride, our mother, the church. And in the church He is with us most importantly in the sacraments, in Baptism and in the Eucharist where we eat His very body and drink His very blood. I jokingly say sometimes "You are what you eat." This is so very true in the case of communion with the Lord. We become closer to Him in communion, he draws us in to him and we are His very body, as are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the bride of Christ and the body of Christ. We eat the body of Christ and drink His blood. The same blood is in all Christians. We are actually far closer to one another than mere brothers and sisters, we are the same body! The body of Christ. We are as close as adjoining cells in a heart, since yesterday was Valentines day I have hearts on my mind I guess. Or in my case I'm probably a toenail on a little toe. It doesn't do much but it is a nuisance and causes problems if you bump it too hard and you sort of wonder why it's there at all. But no matter what part we are we are under the head, which is Christ.
We are all one Body. Christ is the head. All Christians are closer to us than brothers and sisters. But Christ came for all people and desires all humanity to have this same communion with Him, so we must act in love toward all men and seek to draw them to Christ. Not with threats and anger and condemnation, but with love. Jesus said "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35.
My commitment today is, of course, to act out and show the love of Christ to all I encounter during this day. Amen.
He is with us everywhere and always, but in a very special way in the church, in His bride, our mother, the church. And in the church He is with us most importantly in the sacraments, in Baptism and in the Eucharist where we eat His very body and drink His very blood. I jokingly say sometimes "You are what you eat." This is so very true in the case of communion with the Lord. We become closer to Him in communion, he draws us in to him and we are His very body, as are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the bride of Christ and the body of Christ. We eat the body of Christ and drink His blood. The same blood is in all Christians. We are actually far closer to one another than mere brothers and sisters, we are the same body! The body of Christ. We are as close as adjoining cells in a heart, since yesterday was Valentines day I have hearts on my mind I guess. Or in my case I'm probably a toenail on a little toe. It doesn't do much but it is a nuisance and causes problems if you bump it too hard and you sort of wonder why it's there at all. But no matter what part we are we are under the head, which is Christ.
We are all one Body. Christ is the head. All Christians are closer to us than brothers and sisters. But Christ came for all people and desires all humanity to have this same communion with Him, so we must act in love toward all men and seek to draw them to Christ. Not with threats and anger and condemnation, but with love. Jesus said "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35.
My commitment today is, of course, to act out and show the love of Christ to all I encounter during this day. Amen.
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