Friday, October 15
…for the tree is known by its fruit.
—Matthew 12:34b
If you are reading this in the morning, there’s a brand-new day before you. It is, as they say, the first day of the rest of your life.
You know what? It doesn’t matter a bit whether you were born into money or poverty. It doesn’t matter if your name is Rockefeller or Smith. Not to God, it doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t matter to those whose hearts are in tune with love as the most powerful force in the universe.
Though some may judge us by worldly measures (bank account, power level and family name), we truly are God’s own precious creation, each of us equal in God's eyes and in the eyes of those who know Him. Equal and possessed of equal opportunity. Opportunity to achieve, opportunity to love, opportunity to live in the glow of the gift of life.
I am reminded of the story of the Ole Miss football player told in The Blind Side. “Mike” was born in a ghetto in Memphis. When he came to the attention of some prominent citizens, he was living on the floor of his best friend’s father’s house. His mother was a crack addict; his father had been shot dead. He had almost no education at age 16, and he knew little of the world, or of those basics that most of us are lucky enough to learn in our first years of school.
His friend’s father wanted to get his son into a good school, and also tried to do that for Mike. By a series of seeming-miracles, young Mike was admitted to a good school, and with the help of a lot people was graduated and went on to play football at Ole Miss.
It’s an unusual story, but even so, the fact is, we are not what parents we come from or what income we have or what kind of house we live in. We are what we become. This is another way in which God’s love is shown in our lives. He loves us so much He will be with us as we grow in love and living.
O God, help me to love myself as you love me, and to know in my heart and soul that I am your beloved. Amen.
These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2006.
