Category Archives: Colossians

Don’t forget me

Francesco Allegrini da Gubbio (1587–1663)
Christ Crucified with the Good Thief
Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash.
Framing lines in red chalk,
and in pen and brown ink on mount, 1624–63
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 80.3.326

[The other criminal said,] “Jesus, remember me.” Luke 23:42

No one wants to be forgotten, overlooked, ignored. No one wants to be abandoned, rejected, dismissed. No one wants to be excluded, pushed aside, shamed. No one wants to be treated with indifference, malice, inhumanity.

Today I will give thanks that all people have been made in God’s image of love and goodness. I will remember to be aware of the people I encounter and remember everyone deserves to be treated with respect and kindness. I will ask Jesus to help me remember to love my neighbor as myself.

A holy human family

Frank Wesley (1923-2002)
Boy Jesus with the Teachers

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Colossians 3:12

We create a unified, holy human family by our intentional commitment to look for God’s image in every person we encounter and to respond with respect and reverence to God-in-everyone.

Today I will deliberately treat all people with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Clothed in love

Holy Family

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Colossians 3:12

May I live each day clothed in the love of God, neighbor, and self.

Today I will intentionally walk in the ways of the Lord. I will look for and honor God’s presence in every person.

All in Christ

Gerard de Jode (1509-1591)
The Parable of the Rich Fool, 1585
Royal Library of Belgium

Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all. Colossians 3:11

We are the body of Christ. Christ in you. Christ in me. Christ in those I have a hard time accepting. Christ in those who resent me. Christ in our hearts, minds, bodies, spirits. Christ in all. All in Christ.

Lord, today I will let go of the Christ in me to bless everyone I meet wherever I go.

Choose kindness and gentleness

Jesus among the teachers
Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48280
[retrieved December 26, 2021].
Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. Colossians 3:12-14

There are many, many attributes I can develop so that I live out the Lord’s command to love my neighbor.

Today I will be kindness, gentleness, and patience in all my interactions.

Family

The Holy Family in the Carpenter Shop
Honolulu Museum of Art

Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. Colossians 3:12-13a

By God’s gracious gift of life to all people, we are family, united in God’s unconditional love for each of us. Let us honor and respect each other by remembering our relationship to God and one another.

Where love and harmony make family

Holy Family

A worldwide human family that reflects love and harmony…

…is only possible if I open my heart today and treat myself and all people with compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness. It is only possible when I stop comparing myself to others and follow the Way of unconditional love.

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. Colossians 3:12-13a

We are God’s Holy Family

256px-Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_052

The Flight into Egypt
Attributed to Rembrandt, via Wikimedia Commons

Take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you. Sirach 3:12-14

He is so fragile, my father, and every day getting physically smaller as his Spirit outgrows his frail body.

He doesn’t know us any more, but his smile is as sweet as ever and lights up his eyes. “I love you,” he says over and over. He hasn’t lost the inner wisdom that still knows how to “put on love, the bond of perfection.”