Tuesday, November 30, 2021

 Tuesday, November 30

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. (Rev. 22: 16)

One of my more evangelical friends once said, “Jesus is the answer.” It’s that plain and simple. Jesus is the root, the descendant of David, the morning star, and before that, this text from Revelation adds “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

We might also add that Jesus is the Messiah and our salvation. Jesus is heavenly manna and the Word made flesh. Jesus is radical love embodied. Jesus is much more.

What is so comforting to me in watching this list of Jesus’s attributes unravel is that, despite their large numbers, they all express a sense of permanency. At the time of my writing of this reflection, I had just moved cross-country from my hometown in Sunbury, Pennsylvania to Berkeley, California for seminary.

This move was challenging for so many reasons. I moved far from family, said goodbye (for now) to my home congregation, and set out on an untrodden path. I never thought seminary was for me, but the pandemic created the time and space I needed to discern God’s call and realize the amazing support I had for such a bold move in my life.

The challenges of moving and being away from home haven’t fully subsided. Homesickness still sets in and the tasks pile up. Yet, passages like this one from Revelation are a comforting reminder of the permanency of Jesus. Just as I had known Jesus in my home context, in the love of my family and the grace I saw lived out in my church, so too do I see it here in a wonderful new community of faithful people. People, by the way, who are showing me new ways in which Jesus is rooted in their lives, guiding them like a bright morning star.

Lord God, open our eyes to your rootedness in our lives, that we may cast our eyes upon your guiding light. Amen.

Larry Herrold Jr. is a seminarian from the Upper Susquehanna Synod studying at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. He is pursuing an Mdiv degree and Word and Sacrament ordination in the ELCA.