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2 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.
This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.
To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Sit in the Lap of God
The believers in Thessalonica were discouraged, and they needed encouragement. Sometimes one of the best things you can do when you’re going through suffering, sorrow, pain and trouble is to remind yourself that you are in God’s hands. He is our Father and nothing can come into your life except what he allows. It must be filtered through the love of God. When everything is going wrong and crazy in your life, remind yourself, “I am a child of God. He is my Father.”
The late Protestant minister Dr. Fred Craddock tells this story - the mother picks up a child and says—in the oldest myth in the world — “Let me kiss it and make it well.” . . . She picks up the child, kisses the skinned place, holds the child in her lap, and all is well. Did the kiss make it well? No, of course not. It was ten minutes in her lap. Just sit in the lap of love and see the mother crying. “Mother, why are you crying? I’m the one who hurt my elbow.” “Because you hurt,” the mother says, “I hurt.” That does more for the child than all the bandages and medicine in the world, just sitting in her lap.
If you happen to be in desolation, just slow down and sit in the lap of God.
—Jim Bozik is permanent deacon and associate for pastoral ministry at St. Peter Catholic Church, the Jesuit parish in the Diocese of Charlotte, NC.
Prayer
Oh, Lord my God.
You called me from the sleep of nothingness
merely because in your tremendous love
you want to make good and beautiful beings.
You have called me by my name in my mother's womb.
You have given me breath and light and movement
and walked with me every moment of my existence.
I am amazed, Lord God of the universe,
that you attend to me and, more, cherish me.
Create in me the faithfulness that moves you,
and I will trust you and yearn for you all my days.
Amen.
—Joseph Tetlow, SJ