Boo!
LEA Weekly Devotion
Divine Interjections series for 2017–2018…God is active in everyday life
Week of October 29, 2017, especially for All Saints Commemoration
Extended reading: Rev. 7:9–17
“And they were shouting with a great roar, ‘Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!’” (Rev. 7:10).
Imagine the scene above, and among that shouting crowd were the family and friend saints you dearly loved. Go ahead. Take a few moments to whisper some names.
[This space reserved for whispered names! Make it as long as you like.]
Now imagine the saints who maybe you didn’t love so dearly—but they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the others. Take a few moments to whisper their names too.
[More time for whispering here.]
Can you see them in the throng? Now imagine them with saints of all ages standing in front of a door—much like trick-or-treaters stand in front of yours. No shouts of “trick-or-treat” here. But wait, the door violently swooshes open, and … and … it’s Satan in full garb! But the devil doesn’t have the first word. The crowd roars, “BOO!” And the devil reels back, terrified by the crowd’s chant of “Salvation comes from our God!” The saints in their bright robes of righteousness scare him. They remind him of Jesus! Satan gets the trick. The redeemed enjoy the treat.
All Saints Day is good for looking back and looking forward as well. What comfort we find in God’s sneak peek at Judgment Day! Perhaps you could interrupt your lesson plans this week to include a commemoration of the “faithful departed” related to the students in your classroom. What a teachable moment for the kind of teaching that makes Lutheran Christian education worth all the time, talent, and treasures used to make it happen. Praise God!
Looking forward, can you see yourself in the shouting crowd? The thought is almost too wonderful to imagine. It’s what you live for. And live and live and live and live….
Enough reading for now. You could do a little shouting like the Revelation bunch. And when you do today’s confession of sins and revel in Jesus’ victory and God’s pronouncement of forgiveness, give a glance over your shoulder. Someone with a really hot temper is likely lurking.
You know what to say.
Written by Edward Grube, LL.D.
Director of Publications & Communications
© 2017 Lutheran Education Association
Quoted Scripture: NLT®
Lagniappe for your devotional experience. And an extra treat in memory of former Lutheran school principal Gary Falcone whose musical family sang this at his funeral.
Note: An October 2005 LEA devotion also had “Boo” as a title but with different content. So this is a new one and not a Boo Boo.
Access the library of devotions
The heart overflows with gladness and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God. In this experience, the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy. You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God. – Martin Luther
