REFLECTIONS

Set Apart

Edited version repeated from May 21, 2023

Early dawn casts a tender glow into my home. Only darkness is disturbed by its presence. Nothing about it seems much different than dawn of other days, but this one is not the same. It is different not for its presence but for all the happenings within it. No other day will ever be like it. It will be holy if I live it to be.

Holiness is a state of being that feels out of reach. Only God is holy, we think. But if only God is holy, why did He ask us to be holy? Does God ask us to be something more than He made us to be? Isn’t my life set apart from all others? No other will ever be like me. My life is holy unless I try to live it like someone else.

When one stops to think about the way they live, what do they see? When they pause to consider why God placed them on this earth, do they find that God has asked them to blend into the crowd, to become like everyone else? Or do they discover that God gifted them special, set them apart.

Day after day, we find ourselves in pursuit of food to sustain us, shelter to protect us, and knowledge that will help us grow. We see the successes others enjoy and seek to be like they are. And we rear our children to be the best they can be, all the while teaching them to be like we are. But our creator set us apart from all the others, and He set apart our children too. Holy.

I wonder if today has been set apart for me to express love to someone dear and to forgive someone who has hurt me deeply the way God gifted me! And if today has been set apart for me to bring joy to those with saddened hearts and to feed those in need of nourishment in the manner God uniquely prepared me to encounter them? And I wonder if today has been set apart for me to lead those who are lost, and to care for those in need in the manner God gifted me to do. Or if today is set apart for those special things I didn’t get done yesterday and to ask forgiveness of those I mistreated or overlooked as only I failed to do.

Today is holy, a day to thank God for the blessing of life. We are holy because God is holy. He set each of us apart to bring our unique lights into the world. Jesus said so:

“You are the light of the world,”

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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