Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church Advent Devotions 2024
Tradition Thursday: Brother’s Keeper
December 19, 2024
Jo Hopkins
“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Genesis 4:9
I lost my one and only brother in November. I am thinking of him now in a way I hadn’t when he was alive and living somewhere in the world. We were not as close as we might have been. He was in the service and often not in the States. But I always knew he was there, somewhere in the world. And now he’s not. I remember two times I was tasked to watch over him. Both times he got away from me. Once he fell downstairs and broke some teeth (age 2) and another time he fell into a mountain stream (age 7). I was supposed to be my brother’s keeper, but I didn’t do a very good job. The Lord protected him and kept him safe from the day he was born until the end. I will miss him, miss knowing he is here, but now I know where he is and where he will stay and that he will be safe until I get there. The Lord will see to that.
Dear Father, thank you for being the perfect father – even when we are not the perfect brother or sister. Thank you for the Christmas gift you gave to us all, your son, our brother, Jesus Christ. Amen