Page 48 - Living Light 90

PRAYER FOR TODAY
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Monday October 20 - Facing death
Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. Genesis 48:1
The report of Jacob’s illness reaching Joseph is the first biblical mention of sickness leading to death. So much so that the Babylonian Talmud, that great body of Jewish commentary, suggests that before Jacob, people died without illness, sickness being introduced for the opportunity to convey wishes to children and say goodbye (Bava Metzia 87a).
As children we were kept from death, like many of my friends in the British culture. We were not taken to sick beds or allowed to funerals. Yet, there’s no more natural a generational transition than death. As a hospice chaplain, I’ve seen children kept from the bedside of family and friends, and funerals arranged without them. My spiritual education, however, was in the black Pentecostal church, where funerals include every generation in a beautiful celebration of life, often called a ‘Going home service’.
I now encourage bringing children carefully into the experience of illness and death. Shielding them risks instilling fear, often meaning that their first funeral will be that of a close family member. Let’s not hide the truth of sickness and death from our children and grandchildren, because it is a natural transition that has a spiritual remedy! Jesus didn’t weep at Lazarus’s tomb because he was dead (knowing what he was about to do!), but rather at the hopelessness of the mourners (John 11:35).
Father, I want to protect others (perhaps also myself) from seeing the pain of young ones in bereavement. God of all comfort, be that to the young also. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Tuesday October 21 - Spiritual conferment
“[These] are the sons God has given me here,” Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, “Bring them to me so that I may bless them.” Genesis 48:9
I’m intrigued by the Talmudic idea I shared yesterday, that illness represents an opportunity to convey our wishes and blessings to the next generation. I once visited a gentleman suffering from cancer, sympathising with his ordeal. He was very direct: “Selfishly, I always wanted to go in my sleep, but this cancer gave me the opportunity to settle my affairs and restore relationships. It’s a good ending.” I’d never heard anyone speak about cancer in a positive way.
Perhaps the lesson for us is that we don’t need terminal illness to get on with conferring our blessings to the next generation. Whether healthy or sick, we can be a Jacob and make a spiritual deposit into the next generation(s). Jesus, even as he hung on the cross, spoke blessing to his mother and disciple, John, connecting them as family. You may have young children, or grown children and grandchildren, or you may just see the youth running around at your church. You have something spiritual to confer upon them from your years on this Christian path. Pray for them, speak to them, give them gifts (natural and spiritual), offer wisdom, ask how they are, give to Christian youth charities, volunteer in your youth department, buy a batch of youth Bibles and hand them out. You are not finished yet. Pass on the blessing you have!
Father, please help me to find ways to pass on to the next generation what I have found and learned in you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
PRAYER FOR TODAY