Today’s Scripture Reading (September 15, 2019):
2 Chronicles 7
I am a relatively large man.
That one fact, I am told, can be intimidating. My uncle is very tall, and I can
remember as a child wanting to be just like him. I never did reach his lofty
heights, but I made up for it in bulk. Standing six feet, two inches tall, and
weighing just over 200 pounds in college, my size was an asset on the football
field and walking down a dark alley.
But, when it came to children, I
can seem daunting. I learned early on that when I wanted to interact with small
children; I really needed to get down on the floor with them. Bending over was
not good enough; I needed to sit, crawl, and lie down to get them stop being
scared of the big man in the room. My nieces took years to get comfortable with
me. (At least, now in their mid-twenties, I hope that they are comfortable with
me.) But one story that I remember from their early childhood was one of them
wanting to get from one place in the house to another, and the only way to get
to her destination was to walk by me. And so she mustered up every ounce of
courage that she could find, and with her teddy bear in hand for support, she
walked by the place where I was sitting. And under her breath she was
whispering a mantra she had learned from her mother, who is my sister; “He’s
just a big teddy bear. He’s just a big teddy bear.”
As the glory filled the Temple,
and fire was falling from the sky, it is easy to imagine that it was terror
that was filling the hearts of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. There must have
been a moment when they wondered if this God that they had come to serve might
accidentally destroy them. I am sure that I would have watched the fire fall
and been totally unsure of what the proper thing to do might be?
According to the Chronicler,
the people fell to the ground, calling out the words “He is good. His love
endures forever.” It is a reasonably common reminder that we find in the Psalms
and a refrain that has been added to several texts. In Psalm 136 alone, the
phrase “His love endures forever” is used twenty-six times. But here, the
phrase seems a little less poetic. And I wonder if the phrase was more of a
mantra, like the one whispered by my young niece as she made her way past me.
In spite of all that I am seeing and the terror that threatens to engulf my
very soul, I need to remember that “He is good. His love endures forever.”
And in all of the moments of
life, it is a mantra that is useful on our lips as well.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 135
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