Matins Devotion: June 10, 2024

Proverbs 8:22-36

In the beginning was the Word. Always and forever, He has been there. From the beginning of the Father’s work, the Son has been with Him. Ages ago, before even time itself, before the beginning of the universe, the Son of God was there reigning in glory. He was there before the earth with its fields, before the first dust of the world. Before anything was, the Son of God was. Before the first day, He was daily His Father’s delight, rejoicing before Him always. 

But the Father’s joy would not be complete until He was always rejoicing in you and with you. So through the eternal Son, the Father created the heavens and the earth. He brought this world into existence so He could bring you into existence. And when the fullness of time had come, He sent His Son into this world, born of woman, born under the law, so that He might fulfill the law in your place, lift you up from the condemnation of sin, and welcome you into His eternal embrace.

That’s the heart of the Father, the heart that has always belonged to His Son, the heart that beats within the fleshly chest of the Incarnate Word given the name “Jesus.” That Son came to serve you, came to love you. He washed the feet of His disciples to show them and you precisely this, to show you that, when you needed cleansing and healing, God Himself would provide it with His own hands.

“Blessed is the one who listens to me” says Christ in our reading from Proverbs this morning. So listen to the words He spoke to you in the waters of your baptism. Now, through those waters, you are clean. Now, through those waters, you are resting in the arms that have been waiting to hold you since before the first dawn. Now, Wisdom has claimed you and the kingdom of God is your inheritance.