Thought for the Day – 19th May 2020

Remember Lot’s wife - Luke 17: 32-33

 “Remember Lot’s wife.  Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it.”

These times of lockdown give us the opportunity to reflect and think on our past and what might become our future, this will no doubt take us on a different path from that which we were used to.

I wonder what your earliest memory is?  I remember once, when I was about two and a half or three, I was out for a walk with my parents and I lay down on the path and refused to move because I didn’t want to go any further.  But to my horror they totally ignored me and carried on walking, I have to say that I was frightened at being left on my own but I learnt a lesson I’ll never forget!

In the scripture verses from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus told his listeners to ‘remember Lot’s wife’, who, we are told in the book of Genesis (ch. 19), met a calcified end after disobeying the angels’ instructions not to look back when fleeing from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  This story would have been among the earliest in the communal memory of the Jewish people.  By referring to it, Jesus was warning his listeners not to hanker after past comforts, but to be prepared for the new reality he was ushering in.

Can you remember what your earliest memory was and what you learned from it?

Prayer:

Father God, reassure us that our lives have been worthwhile in your sight, whatever mistakes we have made.  Forgive us when we have failed to learn from past mistakes, and help is to know that you are always at our side as we walk with you into the future.  Amen.