“On My Heart Imprint Your Image,” ELW 811
On my heart imprint your image,
Blessed Jesus, king of grace,
That life’s riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may your work erase;
Let the clear inscription be:
Jesus, crucified for me,
Is my life, my hope’s foundation,
And my glory and salvation!
Devotion
“Clothed in God’s Grace” is the selected theme for our Lenten devotions this year. This theme carries through in a unique way with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. God’s grace comes in the most contrary of signs, challenging our perception of how God’s grace is made known among us. Who would have thought God’s grace would be present riding a borrowed colt?
The cloaks thrown on the colt and on the road are signs of the wonderment of the people. Could this really be the Messiah, the Anointed One of God? Jesus doesn’t appear like a regal military general riding into Jerusalem to send the Roman occupation forces out.
And yet the people call out the words of the ancient psalm with proclamations: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
Was such a proclamation to be silenced, even “the stones would shout out.” This is the King who comes, the Anointed One clothed in God’s grace, that we too may be fully clothed in the clear inscription of God’s glory and salvation: “Jesus crucified for me.”
Prayer
On my heart imprint your image, Blessed Jesus, king of grace,
That life’s troubles nor its pleasures Ever may your work erase;
Let the clear inscription be: Jesus, crucified for me,
Is my life, my hope’s foundation, All my glory and salvation!