Listen

God, you have ordered that your decrees should be kept most carefully. How I wish my ways were strong when it comes to keeping your statutes! Then I wouldn’t be ashamed when I examine all your commandments. I will give thanks to you with a heart that does right as I learn your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes. Please don’t leave me all alone!

Psalm 119:4-8

Think

As a hobby gardener, growing things in the city has presented some unique challenges. My Maidenhair ferns, for example, require humidity (but not heat), sunlight (but not direct sunlight), and water (but not too much). Sometimes, the level of attention and care these plants require can feel like a never-ending list of Dos and Don’ts.

Like the Maidenhair fern, people require specific conditions for survival and growth. When we hold the law of scripture (which at first glance appears to be a never-ending list of Dos and Don’ts) in the context of God’s love for us, the ways of God begin to look less like a list of rules and more like instructions for our care and thriving.

As we tend to God’s commandments to love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we may discover that these laws lead to human flourishing and growth in our own lives.

Holle Tubbs

Pray

God, show me how to honor the order of your creation by looking at it through a lens of love and care.

Remind me that you have never and will never forsake me, even when I have to try again.

Amen.

Go

… A legal expert tested him.  “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Matthew 22:35b-40

Go forth in love.