Daily Devotion – May 30, 2020 – The Rev. Doug Grant
Matthew 22:34-40 (NIV)
“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
On the wall of my study I have two reminders of WWII, or that is what most people would think if they saw them. One is a print that shows a view of the numerous main parts of a B-24 bomber, the other is an artistic drawing of a man and a P-38 airplane (a twin engine fighter). The strange thing is that the reason they are there has nothing directly to do with an interest in WWII (although that is one of the parts of US history that I have read a great deal about). For me they are more about family history than WWII history.
The B-24 has significance to me because my uncle, Richard Grant was in a B-24 when it got shot down over Nazi occupied France before D-Day. The French underground took care of him until they could get him to the American forces after D-day. He spent a month in a hospital in England (must have been standard operation procedure because he was not injured) before he went to the US. The first my aunt knew he was missing in action and did not know he was alive until he called her from New York.
My mother’s family name was converted to Bong from Swedish Bång. The drawing is of Richard Ira Bong who was the top ace in WWII. His plane has a picture of “Marge” on the nose… the woman he would marry when he returned to his home of Poplar, WI. My mother’s maiden name was Bong and Richard is a part of the same family that emigrated from Wilhelmina, Sweden. The drawing was done by our artist son as a Christmas gift which makes it even more special to me.
It isn’t what’s in those pictures that matters to me, it is the connections they portray. A small part of who I am is connected, to those two people, what they did and what happened to them. There are other things around the house too. Beautiful scenic paintings done by my mother, a Diamond Horseshoe brand crescent wrench that was made by the company my grandfather worked for and belonged to my dad, a simple hinge that worked like a flag on the mailbox at their house – Dad could look out the window and know that the mail had come (a part of his problem solving attitude).
I know that I am who I am because of the connections in my life. I also know that I am who I am because of the connections God provided through his son. Jesus connects us to everyone. That is hard to take in because we can’t really comprehend “everyone,” it is easier to think of the word neighbor, but Jesus expands that word to mean all others.
Lord God, you have made us your children, brothers and sisters of your son Jesus. Help us to ponder how that connection shapes us and what it means to love our neighbors. Amen
