Day Two

Read Psalm 100; Study 4-5

My interpretation of these verses was shaped by an experience I had right before reading them. I watched both boys fall asleep. I was filled with such love that I my heart had no room for anything but love for them. I wondered how I could be so cross and frustrated with them when I love them so much. But then I thought that my mom must have looked at me that way when I was a child. And Thomas’ mom must have looked at him that way too. And how much a mother loves, but doesn’t always know how to show it, and how often we mess up.

Then I read about the Lord’s faithfulness through all generations. 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I thought about entering his gates with thanksgiving and praise as meaning when we come to him in prayer – not just about when we go to church – we can give thanks even for the ability to come to him. And how sometimes God’s goodness and love seem so big and broad that it is hard to meditate on it. It is just too big, but the last line narrowed my meditation.

My mother and father love Jesus, some of my grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents also loved Jesus. I have the blessing of their lives and learning being passed on from generation to generation. It is not a blessing I take lightly either. Things that I do just because are often things that my mother taught me whose mother taught her. Things I think are often based in perspectives shaped by my parents who were shaped by their parents and so on. Even this post is influenced by generations of people who loved God.

This is one way that God has shown his goodness and love and faithfulness through generations. Parents may have messed up, but God is still working. I may mess up, but God will still love me and love my children. My love is just a picture of God’s love for them. And the more I understand the love that God has for me, the better I will be able to show my sons the love he has for them.

That is something to be thankful for.