Genealogies are found throughout the Bible, and I have found them to be both informative and interesting reading. In a sense they provide a legitimacy to the stories of God’s chosen people because we see the growth of the family tree from Adam all the way to Jesus. Along the way, the authors would occasionally interrupt the list of names to provide small details about particular individuals not unlike details you might have heard about one of your distant relatives.

I am fortunate to have a family genealogy that was traced back to the year 1280. The large parchment sheet does not just list names but also has small notes about people with titles like Earl of Worchester or Secretary to King Henry VII. One person had a note that they had the family Bible.

I think it fitting that the early chapters of Genesis put a priority on genealogy with an emphasis as we see in today’s scripture that God created both man and woman in God’s image. I have two photos that I really enjoy, one is me with three of my father’s brothers…I look just like them. The second photo is me with two of my mother’s brothers…I look just like them. Clearly, I was created in the image of my parents.

When I read God created man in His image, it gives me a comfort to know that this was one of the first acts of love by God and sets the stage for God desiring a relationship with us, His children. This is seen in the portion of scripture that reads, “He created them male and female and blessed them.” Regardless of our current family dynamics, we should draw comfort knowing that our family tree traces all the way back to Adam and Eve, created by God, in the image of God, and blessed by God. You have a part in that as well.

Father, God, thank you for creating each of us in your image. Strengthen and nurture us as a loving Father who desires nothing more than a relationship. Open our eyes that your desire for relationship also extends to all those around us. It is in your name, God, that we pray. Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Owen Ragland.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

During our church's Vacation Bible School, I had the pleasure of being in the kitchen. As the children came through the line, I watched as parents worked with their children on having good manners. Some, when asking for their selection, had to be reminded to say “please.” At times, the parent holds the plate as they say several times, “Now what do you say?” until the child finally says, “please.”

Other times, the “please” is almost automatic, and often I heard a “good job” from the parent.

The cutest exchange I saw was when the child did not want either selection we offered. The parent said, “You have to choose one.” After much resistance, the choice was made. The parent said, “Now what do you say?” The child replied, “Why do I have to say thank you for something I don’t want?” Mom politely said, “Because you are lucky enough to have something to eat, you are lucky that there are people here to cook this food, and besides, it is the right thing to do.” With a sullen, stormy look, the server got a “thank you,” to which she replied, with just a trace of a smile, “You're welcome.”

This entire exchange made me think of the words from Thessalonians where we are encouraged to give thanks in all situations. I picture myself being at times like that pouting child saying or thinking, “Why do I have to give thanks for this?” We can easily list the things in life that do not spark any feelings of gratitude. Among them are illness, loss, anxiety, and fear. No, we may not give thanks for the specific negative things that are impacting our lives, but like the child in that situation, God wants us to pull back from the immediate moment and look at life in a broader context.

When we do we see that we are lucky to have a loving God who is with us in this dark time and that there are loving friends and family supporting us.

I now have a new image to hold when I come to those times where I want to sulk instead of give thanks. I am going to picture God as that loving parent standing beside me, reminding me of all the things that are going well in my life, even in the midst of the storm, encouraging me to say thank you. And if I resist, God will help me see the big picture but most of all remind me, “Besides it its the right, the gracious, and loving thing to do.”

Just like the child who beamed when praised for using their good manners, I want to bask in God’s loving smile when I am at my best and doing and saying what God is trying to teach me to do. I want to hear, “Good job!”

Life can be challenging, and it my be hard to find gratitude in the moment, but remembering that God is beside me, encouraging me to see the good in life will help those words of thanks to come a little quicker. Don’t we all want to live knowing our heavenly parent is pleased because we are doing what we have been taught to do?

Loving God, we remember that you are always beside us, encouraging us and wanting us to be our best. This loving presence is enough for us to say thank you this day and every day, no matter what might be happening in life. AMEN.

This devotion was written by Bill Green and read by Amy Large.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

These verses sound like today’s headlines. Drought has hollowed out the land. Everything is disrupted. The prophet cries out with a question that every generation eventually asks: God, have you rejected us? Why won't you show yourself?

Jeremiah doesn't soften the complaint: we hoped for peace and no peace came, we hoped for healing and found only terror.

Chapter 14 is unsettling because a few verses earlier we read that other prophets are going around promising the opposite — no sword, no famine, only lasting peace (v. 13). It sounds comforting. It is also false. Jeremiah's honesty doesn't ask anyone to pretend that everything is okay. The failure he sees is the temptation to trade honest lament for comfortable lies. That's a spiritual failure before it's ever a political one, and it shows up in every age, including ours.

Yet Jeremiah doesn't stop with just the complaint. He confesses the guilt plainly — ours and our ancestors' both — and then does something remarkable: he turns from the ache to the throne. Not because the drought has broken. Not because the terror has passed. But because he still knows who holds the rain.

Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? No — it is you, LORD our God. The circumstances haven't changed by the end of the passage. What's changed is where Jeremiah has planted his hope.

There's an old hymn that says it almost the same way: though the wrong seem oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. That's not a denial that the wrong is strong. Plainly, it is, in Jeremiah's day and in ours. Jeremiah refuses to let the wrong have the final word. Jeremiah's hope isn't naive optimism dressed up in religious language. It's hope that has already looked straight at the drought, the failure, the false prophets, and the sin — and chosen to trust anyway.

That's the kind of hope worth carrying into whatever afflicts us now — not a hope that ignores the wound, but one that has counted the cost of it and still says, our hope is in you.

Lord, we don't always know why the healing is slow in coming. Give us the honesty to name what's broken, and the faith to trust you as the one who mends it — not because the trouble has ended, but because you have not. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Jim Stovall.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.