By Katy Mariotti

Not For Me

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
Colossians 3:1-2 English Standard Version

Happy Groundhog Day! Will the groundhog see his shadow today? Will there be six more weeks of winter? Groundhog Day is not a holiday I’ve ever been particularly attached to. I remember learning about it in school, and we have a tradition of watching the Bill Murray movie every year (ironic that we do the same thing every year? If you’ve seen the movie you know what I mean 🙂 )  Otherwise, the holiday is not really on my radar. But it wasn’t until I was an adult that I actually did the math: six weeks from February 2 is mid-March. Where I live in Colorado, mid-March is ALWAYS still winter. In fact, ever since I was a child it has snowed on or around my birthday in late April. The picture I’ve included today was taken around my daughter’s birthday in late May a few years ago. We had to reschedule her birthday party that year, as it was an outdoor party and there was a foot of snow!  Groundhog Day is not meant for me.

While I found that fact more amusing than anything, it felt mildly disappointing too. Sometimes I think our lives as humans can be that way, when something that sounds nice to participate in ends up being not for us. But we are told in Colossians that we are to set our minds on things above. That doesn’t mean that we just don’t participate in life here on earth, but it gives us a higher calling. Later in this chapter of Colossians, there is some guidance on what that means:

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Colossians 3:12-14 ESV

Let us remember to set our minds on things above, regardless of the weather!

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado