Seeing God’s reflection in others
“But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed.” (1 Samuel 26:11a)
At first glance, our Bible verse this week seems like a little bit of a head-scratcher. Perhaps you looked at it and asked yourself, “Who exactly is ‘the Lord’s anointed?’”
This verse in its original context is David saying for the second time that there is no way he could kill Saul, who was God’s anointed king. In the context of our lives today, “the Lord’s anointed” is each one of us. God “anointed” us – chose us as his own – in our baptism.
You likely remember one of your parents telling you and your siblings when you were in a disagreement with each other “Keep your hands to yourself!” You know what ensued. You would poke at each other as subtly as possible and finally one of you would cry out “Mom, ________ is touching me!” Never mind the fact the one who tattled had probably been poking at and provoking the other sibling for a long time.
As we grow up and go through life, we don’t have our parents to tell us to keep our hands, our words and our thoughts to ourselves. How often have you said ugly and hateful words to other people? How many more times haven’t you thought those same things or worse?
What if we went through life and truly thought of each person we came into contact with as a baptized child of God – someone who has the same standing and status before God as we do? Often sinful words and actions come as a result of us thinking ourselves superior or better than those around us, and that becomes our justification for demeaning or degrading them. Granted, not everyone we come into contact with is a baptized child of God, and that is an opportunity to share Jesus with them. But what if we truly treated everyone with Christ-like love and concern instead of joining in the hatred and contempt the world is prone to? That would be an obvious way to let our light shine, as discussed in our devotion several weeks ago. Yes, we would stick out like a sore thumb in contrast to the world around us, but that is exactly what being salt and light is all about.
Thank God you are his “anointed” baptized child and ask him to help you treat everyone around you as a child of God as well!