by Rev Douglas Brauner

Or, It’s All about Grace

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

I tried, I really tried to avoid writing a devotion about me on my birthday. However, God picked this day for me to write this devotion. When I establish the writing schedule for the Praying With The Eyes devotions, I pray and then use a random number generator to select the days for the authors to write.

God chose me for today, and yes, there were cameras and film when I was born. Even though there’s no date on this picture, I know it’s of me as my mom gave me my baby book and I took the picture from it. What do we learn from this picture?

• I had hair (my mom wrote, “Lot’s of it”).
• I was cute (what happened?).
• I was a deep thinker (probably wondering when my next meal would come).

“I was thrust into your arms at my birth. You have been my God from the moment I was born.” 
Psalm 22:10 New Living Translation

On August 26, 1956 I was “thrust” into God’s arms when my parents brought me to Grace Lutheran Church where Pastor W. P. Maier said, “Douglas Paul Brauner, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Since I was baptized in a Lutheran community, I have to ask myself Luther’s question, “What does this mean?”

• Being thrust into God’s arms from birth means that I have faith. The greatest gift that God has given me is to believe in Jesus and to live each day by this faith.
• Being thrust into God’s arms from birth means that I have hope, hope rooted in God’s mercy in Christ that produces joy in anticipation of being with Christ.
• Being thrust into God’s arms from birth means that I have love. I possess the love of God in Christ, and it is the love of Christ that works through me in this world.

So, happy birthday to me, a birthday drenched in the grace of God that never fails.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado