WRITTEN ON OUR HEARTS

WRITTEN ON OUR HEARTS

In all of life there are certain procedures we follow whether it’s in business, cooking, sports, you name it.  Some are tried and true, as they say, but every once in a while you find that the standard approach is no longer working.  In my life it was when my second child was born.  The first one was pretty easy, a lot like me perhaps, so understanding him wasn’t difficult, but my second son was quite different.  He did not fit the mold.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out his way of thinking and I realized that the standard procedure was not working.  I had to ditch the ‘tried and true’ and go in a new direction. 

It sounds as if God had a similar situation in Jeremiah 31: 31-35;

“…I will make a new covenant…I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will no longer teach their friends and relatives, “Know the Lord!” Everyone, from the least to greatest, shall know me for I will forgive their iniquity and no longer remember their sins.”

What are we to make of this?  C. S. Lewis contends that evidence of this covenant is in the fact that even the most primitive tribes in the world know that it is wrong to kill your neighbor, or steal from them, or lie to them.  This is without benefit of a tablet of stone telling them so.   Basic decency or even good manners depends on the simple idea that everyone counts.  Everyone is touched by God, but some never sense God and so go through life unaware of the power within them to live a blessed life, a happy life.  Even though the quote seems to say it isn’t necessary to teach others about God, we know Jesus was the final covenant and he told us specifically to make him known to the world. This should color how we view everyone. Not only are all people his creations, they have his Law written on their hearts. It gives us a head start in connecting to them. Never forget to include that last line of the scripture, “I will no longer remember their sins.”  It is the one message everyone wants to hear.  It could be the thing that finally prompts them to want to get to know the God who loves them.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin