Stamped By God For Heaven

"Today's Devotion" For August 15, 2005

Read: Matthew 5:1-16; Romans 6:1-14

STAMPED BY GOD FOR HEAVEN

"...let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Mt. 5:16)

During the summer months especially, my wife and I attend a whole lot of AAU basketball tournaments with our two youngest daughters. All of these tournaments span two or three days, mostly on weekends. Most of them require a spectator's entrance fee at the door. After paying the fee, your hand is stamped (usually) with a design and the color ink of the day. If you're wise and frugal, and a tournament length pass is available, you buy it. Then you're generally given a pass which is marked off with a different color each day you attend. In either case, you are identified as a paying customer by a mark on your hand or a mark on a piece of paper. Variations of these identifications occur depending on location, including during the school year for school related athletic competitions.

Okay, so what's so interesting about "hand stamping" or tournament passes? Big deal! In a sense you're right in asking that question. At the same time, what's of great importance about these methods of identification is that identification is an important and necessary occurrence in our daily lives. With the advent of the Homeland Security Department at the as a Cabinet level agency of the Federal Government, as a nation we've become more security conscience as a nation. The events of "9-11" and subsequent terrorist actions around the world have led to strict guidelines and requirements for effective and secure identification for everyone, particularly if you wish to board an aircraft. There are even lists of "suspected" people based on their names, what kind of physical profile they might have, and, I'm told by a reliable source, even the frequency and destinations of travel.

As Christians, we, too, have received a mark of identification that's vital to our security and identity. It declares us to be a child of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, forgiven of all our sins, and holding fast to the hope and promise of eternal life in God's presence in heaven. It's a mark that reminds us that we belong to our Father in heaven and that nothing can take us away from His love. It's a mark that was placed on many of us very early in life, when our parents took us before the throne of God's grace and presented us for Holy Baptism. As the water and the Word were applied to us, as the pastor, nurse, doctor, or some other Christian brother or sister baptized us, under normal or emergency circumstances, the sign of the cross (+) was made on our hearts and foreheads as a reminder that we are redeemed by Christ, our crucified and risen Savior and Lord.

It's a mark that lives with us every day of our lives. It's a mark that gives us the daily assurance that, through faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven and we are held in the very palm of our Father's hand. It's a mark that directs our actions, molds our thinking, encourages our living, gives us courage, and sends us forth as living witnesses to God's love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness for all the world in Jesus.

To be sure, we can live as if we are embarrassed by the mark of our Baptism. We can try to hide it. Rather than living as God's children we can live as children of the world. We can turn to doing every evil God forbids and allow Sin to take over our lives. We can live lives that are no different from anyone else's, as if we don't know Jesus, and reap the "benefits" of that type of life now, and the "consequences" of that type of life later. When we don't let Christ shine through our lives we effectively put a shroud over God's mark on us.

Yet the mark we've received in Baptism is indelible. It can't be erased, lost, stolen, or mutilated. It won't fade away and it won't wash off. While it's true that In all of creation only you and I, as individuals, can put it aside, forget about it, ignore it, or disclaim it, it's also true that even then, that mark will still cling to us as a reminder to us and the world, that God has claimed us as His very own children and has called each of us by name to live with Him forever. Yet, as we carry the mark of Baptism with us throughout our lives, it's a sure assurance that our Father in heaven will continue to work through His Word and Spirit to keep us in faith and to bring us back to Him should we stray. Because of the mark of Baptism, we are called and strengthened to "let y(our) light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify y(our) Father in heaven" (Mt. 5:16). Baptism is the mark of our inheritance in heaven.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, don't let me ever be ashamed to be Your child in Holy Baptism. Thank You for putting Your mark on me for all to see. Help me to let that mark be seen every day of my life under any and all circumstances, so that You may be praised forever, and others might come to the fullness and wonder of Your love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness in Jesus. In His precious name I pray. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright @2005 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.