Faith hope and love
by Libby Jewson
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He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat (Psalm 147:13,14).
Read Psalm 147:12–15,(16–18)19,20
These devotions reflect on the week’s readings through a narrative retelling. As the writer reflected, meditated and prayed over the texts, she says a story started to emerge. This is an imagined dialogue formed between Matthew and a Bethlehem mother affected by Herod’s massacre. The devotions follow this mother’s reflections across the week, inviting us to consider God’s compassion, faithfulness and hope.
If you were here today again, Matthew, I would share with you that finally, the gates that protect me feel stronger. Your time here blessed me with faith, hope and love. Somehow, I felt the Spirit of peace descend on me and linger here. The home in my heart feels warm. I know that the story of Jesus will not go away. I know that my life here in Bethlehem, and the life of our son, and the lives of all those little boys, all those years ago, have also played a part towards restoration, despite the heartbreak. I now know that in among the rubble of this tragedy God was there with us all, always gently guiding us towards faith, hope and love.
I know that using our finest wheat to make our finest bread to share with our finest olives and cheeses with the people in our community of Bethlehem has been something that has restored our souls. Peace has found a home in our community and in our hearts.
And I suppose, too, Matthew, that while you write, your words of new life and love through Jesus help us to understand the completeness of the story and yet also the beginning of the story. You helped me understand the story in a way that spoke to me – in the context of my life and those around me – thank you. You encouraged and gave me reason to keep sharing God’s story – the God who came, lived and died among us in Jesus. Wow, what a story!
God of life, help us all to find our own Bethlehem places of peace and hospitality. Help us listen to others in ways that nurture openness and trust. Help us to foster faith, hope and love through your Spirit with those we connect with each day. Thank you for the gift of faith, hope and love to humanity. Amen.
Libby is recently retired and lives alongside the Moorabool Valley, in Central West Victoria. She loves walking, hiking, exploring, cycling on her beautiful bike ‘Ruby’, gardening, music, appreciating beauty, watching good movies and TV series, reading, sharing meals with friends and family and enjoys tending her orchard of heritage quinces. Libby is an active member of Living Faith Lutheran Church Geelong and spends time volunteering with the Melanie Jewson Foundation with her husband, Gary, and their other two adult children, André and Ashlee. Together, they run a small business called Quincey Fizz. Libby is very thankful to have had the opportunity to study in the Graduate Diploma in Divinity program at Australian Lutheran College this year.
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