In Our Midst

Devotion by: Patti Flowers Jacobina

Jonah 3:1-10

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, ‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

So, I don’t know how many of you know where the book of Jonah is, but I didn’t … and I chose to find it at 12:30 AM on a Sunday morning, when I couldn’t sleep. Ahhh, thanks to the Biblical Table of Contents, I eventually found it between the better-known books of Obadiah and Micah!

The theme of this devotional is profound -- In Our Midst. As I paged through my family’s Bible, which was originally my father’s confirmation Bible, dated April 6th 1941, the various cards from funerals of those loved and gone fell from the pages … my grandmothers’ and grandfathers’, family friends and parents. In reading their memorials, I was reminded that they are certainly ‘In Our Midst’. After living a good life, and with belief in our Savior, they have gone on to receive God’s mercy and to be with Him. Truly, I believe that God saw their faith and good works, and they were acceptable to Him -- as were those of the people of Nineveh in the book of Jonah. They did not perish, yet received everlasting life. And so, I take comfort in this, that they are in our midst, and I smile at the memory of their lives well lived.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Please help us remember those who have touched our lives and to live daily knowing that we are touching others. Guide us so that we may live up to your intentions for us. Help us to know that you are in our midst, in everything we do. Amen.