Our Loving Master

Deuteronomy 15:16-17
But if your servant says to you, "I do not want to leave you," because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your maidservant.


How wonderful to be the master whose slave choose to stay on for life! That someone would rather stay in your service, as a slave, than go out and be free would say much about your character, wouldn’t it? People walking down the street would see the big hole in the servant’s ear and think to themselves, "Wow! His master must be a wonderful person - loving, caring, good, and kind. He must take good care of his servants!" And all the other servants would look upon him and wish they were in his place - wishing that this man’s master was their master.

So, the question must be asked; are we living lives that reflect the love and goodness of our Master to all those around us? After-all, that is what Christianity is all about, isn’t it? Bending our knee to God, and giving Him our lives. And He takes us, and instead of putting an awl through our ear, He places the Holy Spirit in our hearts - we are marked, sealed - we are His for life. We become His holy temple.

It’s a glorious thing, really. Because just like the servant in this passage, we understand that we are so much better off under the care and guidance of the God of this universe. He really is a good and kind Master - much better than all the rest, I’m sure most of us could attest to that. Better to be a servant in His house than a king in our own, right?

So we give to Him our all. We give Him the absolute right to make all the decisions in our lives (at least in theory, if not in perfect practice). And if that is the case, then every area of our lives should be marked by Him. Everything - every little think we do should have His seal of approval on it. Our entire lives should be marked for all to see.

So the question still remains - do those around us see, not us - the servant - but rather the loving, caring, good, and kind Master who has won us over, and stolen our hearts? Do they look upon us and think upon Him? Do the wretched slaves of drugs, pornography, greed, anger, alcohol, fear - all the slaves that walk the streets each day look at us and see that we have a Master who is far better than the one they serve? Do they long to be in our place?

I am continually drawn back to a quote by Oswald Chambers that says, "You can never give another person that which you have found, but you can make them homesick for what you have." Let us each live such glorious, passionate, joy-filled lives that every person we come into contact with will yearn and ache for that which we have discovered. Let us, through our lives, call the wandering, the tired, the lost home again.