Matthew 10:40-42 (NRSV)
Read Matthew 10:40-42 on biblegateway.com
Verse 40"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Verse 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; Verse 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple-truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."
Devotion
Who are you? The novelist Walker Percy wondered: “Why is it that in your entire lifetime you will never be able to size yourself up as you can size up somebody else – or size up Saturn – in a 10-second look?”
We are strangers, especially to ourselves. Along my daily commute route, advertisements proclaim the good news of self-expression. We don’t want mere stuff. We want to find and define our authentic selves. An ad from a local mall communicates the aspirations of a new generation. The ad reads, “More ways to be you.”
Christians confess another story. “I believe that Jesus Christ – true God, Son of the Father from eternity, and true man, born of the Virgin Mary – is my Lord.” We are not our own. God created, and still preserves, our bodies and souls with all their powers.
Prayer
O God, you have formed us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you. Amen. – St. Augustine