Weekly Devotion

February 14 2021

Scripture: Mark 3:31-35 and Romans 13:10
     As I am reading a book for my Formation of Ministry class titled Tattos on the Heart by

Gregory Boyle, I am profoundly struck by the title of the ninth chapter, “Kinship”. The word

struck such a nerve in me that I have been praying and focusing on exactly what that means and

what it should me for us as Christians. We us “love one another” as almost a tag line for

Christianity to describe how we should treat each other. But the way Jesus loved is much

deeper. It’s kinship. It’s being related. It means that I should love the soccer coach who

benches my kid the same as I do my biological brother. It means that I love the lady who side-

swiped my car at the Walmart parking lot as much as I do my mother. We are all related

through the blood of Christ and we should treat each other so.

     Gregory Boyle did not just strike a nerve with the title of chapter nine but also with his

words, “The wrong idea has taken root in the world. And the idea is this: there just might be

lives out there that matter less than other lives.” As Christians we must strive to be so much

more intentional with our love for each other that, as Boyle closes, our “souls feeling their

worth, refusing to forget that we belong to each other.”


Prayer: Lord let us not forget that we belong to each other and that we are all your children.

Place in our path opportunities to show and act out our kinship love for one another.