Scripture Scribbles: August 7, 2022

the Gospel

Luke 12:35-40

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Gird your loins and light your lamps

and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,

ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those servants

whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.

Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,

have the servants recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.

And should he come in the second or third watch

and find them prepared in this way,

blessed are those servants.

Be sure of this:

if the master of the house had known the hour

when the thief was coming,

he would not have let his house be broken into.

You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,

the Son of Man will come.”

the devotion

“…be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.”

Before my conversion, this scripture passage was so different for me, distorted by my wounded heart. I only heard about a master who sought to catch his servants unaware. “You better be awake,” I heard. “Be ready to work, even when you are exhausted.” I envisioned the blessed servants so tired. Maybe pinching themselves to keep from dozing off. Cold. Alone in the dark. Motivated by fear of this tricky master. A master out gallivanting while they suffer to attain an impossible standard of vigilance.

But in His tender, gentle, way he has been healing my heart and revealing his own to me. And now my soul leaps with the joyful anticipation of these blessed servants. They are ready to throw the door open for Him as soon as He knocks because they know him and he is so good to them.

My soul’s own longing for its maker and lover is stirred by Jesus’ words. And as if it had never been there before I read, “Amen I say to you, he will gird himself, have the servants recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.” This is our Lord. The one who never tires of coming to us in our dark nights. The one who never tires of knocking. And when we open the door, it is He who lavishes us in tender care, satisfying our deepest hunger and thirst.

Today, He asks me about the parts of my heart where I am distracted or turn away from him to try to meet my own needs apart from Him. He invites me to orient myself entirely to him like the blessed servants, to trust his promises and anticipate his goodness.

Lord, help me orient myself entirely to you in joyful anticipation, to ache for eternity with you and also to know you and to see you arrive in my life moment by moment, everyday.

Today’s devotion was written by Lucia Parker