More Than A List

Dear Faith Family,

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, (Exodus 20:1).

It happened again. Technology has made convenience a necessary evil. My smart wife set up a list that shows up on both of our phones. Like, she types in “needs” (Is a five-gallon bucket of ice cream really a need? Ok. She didn’t put that on the list.) on the grocery list and they magically show up on my phone too. How convenient. That is, if you’re good at the whole list thingy. And with Walmart smack dab in the middle between home and the office, I can pick up the items from the list on my way home. Easy peasy. Right? Of course.

Why are you assuming that there’s a problem right now?! Have list will travel. So, homeward bound, at Walmart I did stop. Funny things happen with technology. I’m quite sure that items on the list fade in and out of view. Has it happened to you? Apparently, the item (the one on the list that seemed to fade out of view – technology!) that my wife most desired from the list somehow missed the trip home. Oops.

Obviously, I’m a visual learner. You know, the guy who walks up and down the aisles so that I can see what we need! (Things like Nutella, caramel macchiato creamer, pretzels, and sparkling grape juice. I like to cover all the food groups.) If I can see stuff, I can remember stuff (I’m not saying that I would forget list stuff).

So, what’s the point? God knows the limits of our memory. Knowing that we need to be reminded, He often reminds us visually. One of my favorite visual reminders serves as more than the prelude to the Ten Commandments. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, (Deuteronomy 5:6).

Over eighty times in the Bible, God reminds us that that He is the One who brought us out of slavery. It’s a big deal! He painted a living picture in Exodus. It was ignited with the burning bush, continued with the whole staff to a serpent to a staff transformation, escalated with the ten plagues (speaking of visual learning – have you thought about the plagues lately – not like you could overlook blood, frogs, gnats, flies, dead livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death), and there’s the whole abuse from which God saved them. The people of God plundered the Egyptians, followed the cloud, and crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. Not so much the Egyptian army.

Egypt? Slavery? Moses? Plagues? Red Sea? The cloud? Pictures. Sermon sacs. He’s showing us something. Something He wants us to know and to remember. Jesus, the Redeemer, has arrived. He entered into our slavery to sin and broke the chains! Christmas is more than a silent night. It is the appearing of the Lord our God, who brought us out of the house of slavery and death!

Thanking God for more than a list,

Pastor Karl