Mail Archive of the old Santa Clara Valley Lutheran Parish

Subject: May 13 Devotion

Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 00:15:06 -0700 (PDT)

From: David Bonde <dkbonde@gmail.com>

MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <a64c4b9a-4c19-44e6-8fdd-e72a01d03c32@y18g2000pre.googlegroups.com>
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 00:15:06 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.100.107.7 with SMTP id f7mr536460anc.23.1210662906864; Tue, 13 
	May 2008 00:15:06 -0700 (PDT)
X-IP: 69.109.217.250
User-Agent: G2/1.0
X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) 
	Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe)
Subject: May 13 Devotion
From: David Bonde <dkbonde@gmail.com>
To: SCVLP <scvlp@googlegroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

=93Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness=94 (2
Corinthians 3:12)

I volunteered for the devotion on the 13th of each month because I
figured I had a better chance of remembering it.  The 13th was Anna=92s
=93special day.=94  Anna was born on the 13th of May and while we never
suggested that the monthly anniversary of your birth had any special
meaning, Anna was certain it did.

There was a remarkable certainty in Anna.  It was more than just
confidence and not at all an egotism, just a conviction that the heart
of the universe was good.  So a day that other=92s treated with
superstition, she boldly claimed as her own.  If it was Friday the
13th, all the better.

When the girls and I were searching for a house to rent when we had to
move from the city into the Livonia school system in the Detroit
suburbs (they were then about 9 and 7), we looked at one that backed
up against an old cemetery.  Anna was disappointed we didn=92t get that
one.  She knew the cemetery would freak her friends, but she thought
it was a place to play.  We are, after all, children of the
resurrection.

She had lived in Detroit long enough to know the truth about the
tragedies and sorrows of life.  One day when she was about 6,
reflecting on the song =93There is a Balm in Gilead=94, she asked why
there was no balm for Detroit.  She was not na=EFve about life, she just
=93believed more boldly still.=94

I confess that at this point in life I feel more like Jacob limping
than Anna=92s confidence that you could play in the cemetery.  But when
I think of what children of the resurrection should look like, I think
of her.

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them,
because it is the LORD your God who goes with you; he will not fail
you or forsake you."  (Spoken by Moses to the people as they stood at
the edge of the Promised Land.)

Acts 4:29 And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your
servants to speak your word with all boldness =85 31 When they had
prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God
with boldness.  (The prayer of the followers of Jesus when they were
threatened =93not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.=94)