Day 4: Genesis 9-11; Matthew 4

Genesis 9:20-23 has both fascinated and perplexed me at the same time, every time I read it. Last year I attended the dedication of a new church building for a ministry that deals with people in their most broken condition...usually addiction. As it turned out, a fitting passage. The preacher, I don't remember his name, made an interesting application I had not before considered. Ham saw his father in his shame and failure, did nothing to restore his dignity (help him), turned his back on his dad and walked away, went out of his presence and talked about him to others. Shem and Japheth did not engage in gossip...would not talk about his failure to others before engaging him with respect. In the biblical account they said nothing. They would not disrespect their father in his shame and failure, rather without focusing on that, they covered him, restoring his dignity. Ham was cursed. His brothers were blessed, and Shem became the father (ancestor) of Abraham, who became our 'father in the faith.'

That message was one that I listened to and said, "Ouch!" This year I want to be present to the broken in their failure, respecting their dignity (made in the image of God), covering their brokenness with grace, and helping restore them to Jesus, in Jesus. I don't want to see, turn my back, gossip and do nothing...which ultimately tears a person down, shames them and may drive them away from grace.

"Lord, help me be like You! You looked on a broken world, wept over their lostness and offered them grace, a gift they did not deserve that cost You Your life, that they may be restored to dignity, to belonging. Help me never to use someone's failure and shame to promote my own spiritual superiority, for but by the grace of God, there go I. I need You! I need Your Holy Spirit. Help me to be like You. In Your Name I ask this. Amen"