Oakwood Church Fresh Start Women's Devotional Encouragement for Today Hartland Delafield

Revolving Around the Son
By Jen Wollner

“It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.”
Isaiah 45:12

There’s a playground near our home that my kids and I frequent when the weather is nice. It’s a “space” themed park, so the main structure is a huge rocket ship. On one particular visit, I was up in the rocket with my children and noticed a drawing on the wall. It was a depiction of our solar system. I saw Saturn right away with its gigantic rings. And Earth was easy to spot because it had the outline of the continents on it. As I studied the illustration, testing myself to see if I could remember all the planets, something seemed really amiss. I couldn’t figure it out. What was wrong with this picture? And, then I saw it…the sun was missing! I looked closer and realized that the not only was there no sun, but the planets were all revolving around the Earth!

Ok, so maybe none of the kids up on that structure would have ever noticed or even cared about the misleading drawing of our solar system, but I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about what a true statement it made about us humans. We are often so self-centered that we think the whole world…the whole galaxy…revolves around us. Yes, we are born selfish, but our culture certainly doesn’t help us get over ourselves. We are bombarded constantly with messages that tell us to pamper ourselves or spend more time or money on ourselves. We are, after all, “worth it” according to L’Oreal and many others!

The hard truth is, though…we aren’t the center of the universe. Not even close. The One around whom everything revolves is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He made everything for His pleasure and in Him all things hold together. And as His creation, we are to live our lives focused on Him, pointing to Him and existing for Him. Our purpose is found in Him, and through Him we receive all things. Yet so often, we are like that solar system with no sun…we completely forget about the Lord and leave Him out of the “picture” of our daily lives. Just as the sun is necessary to sustain life on earth, so the Son gives us our very breath. He deserves our attention! He is worthy of our praise!

Let’s not make the same mistake that the artist of the playground solar system made…let’s be sure the Son is in the center of our hearts and the object of our attention.

GOING DEEPER:
1. What could you do today to turn more of your focus to the Lord?

FURTHER READING:
Isaiah 42:5; Revelation 4:11; Colossians 1:15-17

Jen and her husband are busily parenting three children under the age of 6. Jen heads Oakwood’s Fresh Start ministry.