Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, July 18, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
God, our Mother, provides what really matters. Babies don’t act with malice, guile, insincerity, envy, or slander (no matter how much it feels like it when you’re walking in circles in the middle of the night with a colicky child—just sayin’). Babies need one thing, from which everything else flows: love. When you love a child, you want nothing more than that child’s flourishing, and so you will give it the milk she requires to grow and thrive, the attention she needs to feel secure, the interaction she needs for her brain to develop, and all the other trappings of making sure her needs are fully met.
This is what our Mothering God does for us if we just let her. But since we’re no longer infants, we reserve the right to make ridiculous choices that lead to all sorts of negative behavior which, in turn, leads to conflict and chaos. We would do well to relax into the loving embrace of our God and allow ourselves to be nourished on what really matters.
In what ways do I feel nourished by God?