HAND ME DOWN
What it means to be CHOSEN
June 7th, 2023
Colossians 3:12-14, ‘So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.’
COAT of many COLORS
This time, it paid off to be the young’un. Sometimes, cycles remain unbroken for generations. Jacob (now Israel, in his old age) remembers all too well the cost of not being the most loved by his father, yet he passes on to another generation, the pain and the promise of family dynamics. Perhaps that was the reasoning behind Jacob’s aptitude to spoil his son Joseph; it’s hard to say. For whatever reason, Jacob, who had many sons, loved Joseph best, which would inevitably bring about years of jealousy and unhealthy competition and family treachery.
Joseph’s brothers would, for the next multitude of years, stop at nothing to thwart their brother in all that he attempted. From dropping him in a pit to selling him for mere shekels to imagining him dead and disowning him as brotherhood, they tried everything to annihilate their brother. But, even killing someone or wishing them dead, however, doesn’t stop you from walking in someone’s footprints or wearing someone’s hand-me-downs.
Jealousy and envy are as powerful as drugs when it comes to the hallucinations the two emotions can induce in others. These two feelings imbibe in us desires beyond control; they cause crimes of passion and wield malice and greed, making humans commit crimes beyond explanation. It can be as simple as being given a coat of many colors than can cause someone else to be deaf to a voice of reason or it can be sharing intimacy with someone or something other than who we have promised our vulnerabilities to. Whatever the case may be, decades and generations can be affected by our misalignment of affections and intentions.
The Lord allowed repair in this particular story, but it didn’t happen until it was almost too late. Sometimes, this side of heaven never witnesses healing in relationships, especially in families that are so broken by coveting what our brothers or sisters have that we do not. We also can cause much damage when we place someone on such a high pedestal that leaves them no option but falling off. And finally, let’s make sure we never revel in the broken halo, a person we have envied might eventually wear one day. If we spent as much time edifying others as we do designing their fall from grace, wouldn’t the world be such a more beautiful place to be?!
Genesis 50:20, ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.’ (NIV)
you are His REMNANT
