Epiphany........ Revealing the Life of Jesus. A Devotional for The 6th Sunday February 13

We have a remarkable ability to forget God's activity in the recent past and live our lives looking for the next big event that God is going to do. So often we keep asking God to "prove Himself" to us again. It would be easy to blame this tendency on our culture. We have become addicted to the desire for everything to be bigger and better the next time we experience it. Further, our culture feeds us a steady diet of sound bytes that train us to have short attention spans and truncated memories. Who can remember the news of last week --good or bad -- under the avalanche of "live, up-to-the-minute" news in real-time? Yet as tempting as it is to blame our culture for our forgetfulness of God's activity, the problem has been around much longer than that. Even first-century Jews, living in a much slower-paced world, and living in the presence of God-in-Christ had a hard time remembering God's activity. Just on the heels of the gospel of Mark's account of the feeding of the 5000 comes the story of the feeding of the 4000. Two amazing displays of the power of God. But the next 2 scenes Mark gives us display people's amazing power to forget. The feeding of thousands was not enough for the Pharisees, so they came to Christ asking for "a sign from heaven." Jesus refused. Had they so quickly forgotten? The next scene shows the disciples worrying because they only had one loaf of bread among them. It seems incredulous to Christ that his disciples would be worried, of all things, about not having enough bread to feed 13 mouths. "Why are you talking about having no bread?" he asks them. "Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? .... Do you still not understand?" As we march through the cold, barren months of winter, somewhere between the hushed awe of Christmas and the triumphant power of Easter, we have a choice to make. We can trudge along waiting for our spirits to be lifted by one more powerful sign of God's activity. Or we celebrate what God has done and is now doing right before our very eyes. One of the reasons for celebrating the days and seasons of the Christian calendar is so that we never forget God's activity in our world. To keep fresh, and alive, and current, the memory of God's redemptive action. As we re-tell the story year after year, it's more than just telling an old story. We are training our eyes to see God's activity here and now. And maybe, just maybe, we won't have to keep asking for one more sign. Instead, we will learn to see the signs all around us that God is at work -- here and now. Jim Fitzgerald Bethany, Oklahoma, USA Prayer Lord, we thank You for the many ways that You show Yourself to us each day. May we learn to see Your hand at work all about us. We tend to want more evidence of Your presence and power, yet we know that it is there at all times. Help us to exercise our faith to see all the resources that are available to us. May we walk so close to You that we may be able to reach out in faith to receive all that You desire for us. Amen Suggested Daily Scripture Reading [Psalms 72] [Isaiah 54] [Galatians 4:21-31] [Mark 8:11-26] Visit 1999 Advent/Christmas Series Return to Epiphany Entry Page You may send e-mail comments or suggestions toYvonne Edwards. Edited: Feb. 12, 10:40 p.m. Page designed by: Cecil Wallace The background set is provided by In His Image Copyright © 2000 NazNet All rights reserved. International copyright secured.