Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:33-34
Southerners say to plant your garden when the pecan trees bud out. Late bloomers, pecan trees bud when the freeze is over and warmer days are guaranteed.
As the pecan tree buds this month, it pushes off the last clinging pecans––scattering them across the ground long after pecan harvest has ended. Even though new life is not visible, it sheds the old to make way. Pecan trees show that to put on the finery of new life, you must get rid of the past that clings. What an excellent reminder during Lent to cast off the sins that cling so that we can experience the budding of new life. And Jesus offers a way: “Sell your possessions ... give to the poor.”
Following Jesus to Mississippi, we had to sell the house we had renovated on a tree-lined street within walking distance of our church and a shop that sold homemade bratwurst. I couldn’t see what good could come from losing something I cherished. Then I met—and fell in love with—the children in The Quarters. Children crowded into our three-room rented house, filling it with love.
Today a Lenten pecan sits on my desk. It reminds me that nothing in this world is as precious as the new life we have in Jesus, giver of salvation and all true treasure.
Prayer: Merciful God, what You ordain is always good! Your will is just and holy. Direct my life and help me to follow, meek and lowly. In Jesus’name. Amen.
Response: Sell a possession that possesses you. Give the money away.
(Devotions from "Cross of Ashes" by Christine Weerts, a Lenten devotional provided by Lutheran Hour Ministries. Copyright 2005, Int'l LLL. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend.)
Today's Bible Readings: Numbers 1-2 Mark 12:1-27
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