Daily Devotion – May 7, 2020 – Roy Hammerling
Luke 2:41-52
“(Jesus’) mother treasured all these things in her heart.”
A Heart Full of Treasure
Martin Luther in The Freedom of the Christian explains that Christians are both free lords subject to none and dutiful servants subject to all. The mystery of the Christian life for Luther lies in this paradox. God grants grace to the beloved and makes them righteous; therefore, Christians are set free from a bondage to sin. Once free, however, Christians immediately use their freedom to become the dutiful slaves of all, willingly. The Christian life is one of faith active in love, says Luther, and the preeminent example of the Christian life is Mary, the mother of Jesus. God came to her in grace and she willingly responded as a humble handmaiden. Mary not only gave birth to Jesus, but she treasured him in her heart, even though he could a be precocious child; like the time he stayed behind in Jerusalem at the temple while his parents set out for home. They had to look high and low for him, that little rascal. Luke 2 suggests that Mary didn’t understand why Jesus stayed behind, but even so she treasured the memory. We too do not always need to understand in order to appreciate God’s gracious gifts to us, especially the idea that when we are set free, we decide to be slaves to everyone we meet.
Prayer: Grant that we might treasure in our hearts the precocious people in our lives Lord, for they are you in disguise. Amen.
Prayer Concerns: For the precocious people whom we willingly become slaves to.
