Oops!

Hosea 4:11-19
Acts 21:37-22:16
Luke 6:12-26
I had finished writing my thoughts on today’s readings—a rather longer than usual entry—when my computer died. While I did not lose all of what I had written, I lost enough of it to take the time to reconsider it. Here is what I have learned this morning.

Thank goodness the word of God does not depend on people like me remembering to save their work on their computers. The prophet Hosea, the apostle Paul, and Jesus himself remain conversant with us today in part because, by God’s grace, their words have been preserved. That’s a profound reality. Over the centuries writers have come and gone, words have risen in importance and then fallen into obscurity, what some consider to be true has been surpassed by new understanding. But through it all, the word of God has remained available to us.

In my family Psalm 121 is of special importance. Generations of Freemans have read or recited it’s words before undertaking a journey. Many find comfort from Psalm 23, John 3:16, Micah 6:6-8, 1 Peter 2:10, and so forth. And while of our readings today only Luke’s may be particularly memorable, each represents God’s active participation in human life whatever the circumstances. If God was at work in Hosea, Micah, the psalmist, Jesus, Paul, and John, and if we have those words available to us today, then God remains at work now as well, the Holy Spirit reaching out to us from the pages of scripture.

My computer may have run out of battery power and I may have forgotten to save my document, but God transcends the feebleness of human language and human activity with everlasting love and truth. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Almighty God, help us to trust in your word for guidance this day and always. Amen.