Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, August 11, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Gotta love those prepositions. After. Ahead. Before. And all about Jesus. Seemingly contradictory ideas that actually work when you think about them. Jesus literally showed up on the scene after John the Baptist. But Jesus was ahead of John, and why? Because in the grand scheme of the universe, Jesus came before John. When? In the beginning.
I’m a huge fan of word plays and poetic text, so this one has always tickled me in the way it rolls off the tongue and pokes at the brain. It leads me beyond after, ahead, and before and invites me to see Jesus above and below, around and within, through and in and with. It reminds me that there is no state of being that does not include the presence of Jesus. How cool is that?
Ever-present God, in Jesus I am never alone, never without you, and I am grateful. Amen.
![1 Kings 17:1-16 [17-24], God’s Care for the Widow](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/bf37035e-33d5-439f-a0d6-a68b02d0f1bc/24-11-03.jpg)
