Lake Deaton at Home

Jesus was always seeming to get in trouble with the religious leaders and a lot of the trouble he got into had to do with the Sabbath.  I read in a commentary this week that the law simply said that the Sabbath day must be different from other days and that on it neither a man or his servants or his animals must work.  That is pretty broad, simple, lot of room for interpretation, and that is exactly what the people did.  They took that simple law and set out thirty-nine different classifications of work.  In the case of today’s story one of those classifications of work was to carry a burden.  The man in the story was carrying his mat, which could be seen as a burden.  Sometimes humanity works really hard at making simple things, like a day to rest, into something difficult, like thirty-nine different classifications for work. 

Read: John 5:1-18

As I recorded the video I got to thinking about how this time of Pandemic has caused a lot of us to move physically away from people.  We have done this for safety but a side effect has been that it has been harder to show love and compassion to others.  However, we cannot and should not let anything stop us from showing people the Light.  It is our task to shine the Light into the world, showing everyone the compassion and love of God.

Questions to Consider:

1. Has this time of Pandemic been a time when you have rested from many things, one of them being showing a great deal of compassion and love to others?
2. We have lost the ability to physically touch many people, to hug, hold hands, pat each other on the back.  How have you felt this loss of touch in your life?
3. What new ways have you or could you shine the light of God into the world to show compassion and love to your family, friends, and to the world? 

So What Activity:  I have two activities for you today.  One is related to the questions above and the other is to watch a video about the compassion of God.  Enjoy. 

1. Reach out to someone you have not talked to in a while, someone you may have lost touch with during this time of Pandemic.  Find out how they are doing.  Show them love and compassion, maybe not in the old ways, but in some new way. 
2. Watch this video about the compassion of God. 

Blessings,