Genesis 35:2a, 3 - So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you ... Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone."

This devotion pairs with this weekend's Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.

Did your family have photo albums when you were growing up? Mine did. Sometimes, I'd look in one, and say, "I remember going there. I remember that." But other times I'd have to ask, "Who is that? When were we there?" Sometimes, when I had a question about a photo, there'd be a caption that someone had written. Sometimes it answered my question. Other times it raised new questions that I hadn't thought of or summed up the scene from an angle I hadn't considered.

Genesis 35 reads like a photo album. But many of these shots from Jacob's life don't strike me as album-worthy. First there's a picture of a moving caravan. Jacob moved his family to start over in a new town, because in the last place his daughter had been raped. And his sons murdered the man who did it. The next photo is of a big oak tree. The caption reads "tree of my tears," because Jacob's adopted grandmother had died during the move, and that's where they buried her. Then there's one marking a happy occasion—that's where Jacob's youngest son was born. But also, where his wife died giving him birth. On and on, it goes like this, the narrative slogs forward. What does it all mean?

Near the end of Genesis someone asks Jacob his age. Jacob, now a weathered old man, says, "The days of the years of my sojourning are 130." And then he adds a caption: "Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life" (Genesis 47:9b). Summing up the scenes of your life, what caption would you write? What would you say is the meaning? You know, you don't have to answer that, not on your own. We weren't made to make our own meaning. We were created to share in the meaning given in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

And what's the meaning of Jesus' life? If we had to put it in one caption, it might be to love God and to love His neighbor as Himself (see Mark 12:29-31). Jesus came to love us in the same way He loves God, His Father, even when it came to making meaning out of an ugly death, which He made the ultimate portrait of His love when He rose again. He lives now and treasures all your pictures, even the ugly ones, because He will make them speak of His undying love for you.

Later in the book of Genesis, we get another caption: it's God's caption over Jacob's album.

We're told that what people meant for evil, God meant for good (see Genesis 50:20). And Jacob, the haggard old shepherd, now in his 140s, looks back over his life with the eyes of faith, and sums it up with a metaphor that makes sense to him. He says God has been my Shepherd all the days of my life until this day (see Genesis 48:15). But we could put it in our own metaphor: God is your album-maker. He's keeping the pictures. He's writing the captions. God isn't a page in your book, you're part of His. And He's delighted to have you in the family.

WE PRAY: "Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days, let them flow with ceaseless praise." In Jesus' Name. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker for The Lutheran Hour.

Reflection Questions:

1. Do you have photos albums to return to? What brings you back to them?

2. How do you handle the un-album-worthy moments?

3. What caption might God be writing for you over this season of life?

Today's Bible Readings: Psalms 137    Ezekiel 1-2    1 Timothy 2

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