Devotions for the week of: March 4, 2020

Reading:

Genesis 24:1-27: The Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah

What a job! We don’t often hear about Abraham’s chief steward or the servant, the oldest of the house (v2), but here he is given an incredibly important job: find a wife for Isaac. The twilight of Abraham’s life has come and he is thinking about legacy now. What will it look like? So, he asks his most trusted servant to play matchmaker. We can never pretend to understand or know what family and culture looked like in this old, old story. But there is one theme, this story of the searching servant continues to impress upon us.

A few months ago, the sporting world was rocked by the death of Kobe Bryant. I do not follow basketball much, but I did know Kobe. He loomed large, and what added to the tragedy was the death of other passengers, including his daughter, Gianna. All over social media, in the days that followed, the hashtag (a word phrase that organizes pictures and posts together) appeared that said #GirlDad. Many people posted pictures of their daughters on social media. In Abraham’s day, the key question was verse 23: “Whose daughter are you?” This mirrors the hashtag related to Kobe’s death. Gianna was Kobe’s daughter; this is correct but it falls short of the truth.

I am a #GirlDad, too. Three daughters, but we fall short, impossibly short, by defining them solely to me (or a dad, or parent) with my gifts and flaws. 50/40/10 reminds us that our call is to lift up the unique, God gifted talents of all our daughters as they become adults and find their way to live out the Gospel. We lift them up when we set them free with the Good News of God’s work in the world seen most clearly in Jesus Christ. Share with them God’s story!

The steward in Genesis was led to Rebecca at the well. That was God’s faithfulness. That’s was God’s holy work. That was God’s promised presence lifting Rebecca up. No #GirlDad hashtag needed. Someday, I will no longer be part of my girl’s lives; they will choose how to define themselves and what pronouns to use.  But, knowing that I can today tell them the story of God’s unfailing love–no matter the desert, no matter the struggle, no matter the heartbreak of family–is my great joy.  How can you today lift up all our daughters by sharing, “an account of the hope you have within you?” (1 Peter 3:15)

Prayer:

God who lifts us up, thank you for setting your daughters free from family labels that limit them. You call us all “children of God,” and that name can lift us up and give us a vision to serve others, in Jesus name. Help us share with all our daughter’s, in our own words, the ways Jesus meets us and continues to set us all free. This is Good News today. In Jesus name, Amen.

Pastor Kevin Bergeson
Bethlehem, Aberdeen

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