Devotion:
Read Genesis 29:14-30.
Many childhood summers were spent helping Mom freeze quarts of fresh peaches and vegetables. The hours spent picking green beans, butterbeans, peas, corn, summer squash, tomatoes, and peaches seemed like an eternity from a small child’s perspective. But when winter came, and we enjoyed delicious vegetables and fruits, all of those hours were definitely worth it! God was at work producing the harvest. We just simply gathered it all!
It’s difficult to place ourselves in this Genesis’ story of Jacob’s fourteen years of labor which actually totaled 20 years (Genesis 31:38, 41). It is a different culture and a different time. We have little comprehension about how difficult the work was for both men and women during Jacob’s times. It is full of lessons for us from our biblical family’s story. It’s not a perfect family. It is woven with deceit and jealousy. But God is at work weaving grace, redemption and healing.
Whatever age we are, there is work to do. Whether we are a child and we have home-“work”, or music lessons, or sports practice or art “work”, or we are high school or college students and we have greater lists of “work” to do, or we are a parent or grandparent---- or whether we are employed or not, there is always work to be done! It took me many years to realize any kind of “work” is a gift! We all have different abilities for the work we can do, but we can all do the work of praying!
Let us ask ourselves, “What work do we have to do today?” We can add to that question,“What work might we do today which will make a difference in tomorrow?”
We can live with the assurance that God is always at work in our lives, too. God is at work weaving into our messy lives, God’s gifts of grace, redemption and healing.
Personal Worship Option:
Dear God, you know the work I have to do today. Please help me to work faithfully and with a grateful heart. Please help me to work today in such a way that tomorrow will be better for others. Amen.
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