REFLECTION: Chapter 5

Consecrate is a word you don't hear used often these days but it's very important in this chapter of "The Story."

According to the footnote on page 60, to consecrate is "to dedicate a person or thing to God's service."

Dictionary.com expands on that definition a bit by saying it is "to make or declare sacred; set apart or dedicate to the service of a deity." As in, we "consecrate" a new church building.

You get the gist, right? Take someone or something valuable and make is sacred by dedicating him/her/it to God.

In this chapter, we read about God's command to Moses to consecrate the people in preparation for a meeting with Him, a fairly unheard of event. In this case, the consecrating entails ritual washing of their clothes and bodies. One might also guess that there was to be some spiritual preparation involved in this as well.

And frankly, this consecration and the face-to-face meeting with God freaked the Israelites out. And then they chickened out, sending Moses out instead.

Another well-known story of consecration (or dedication) details the story of Hannah and the son she ached to bear. Once Samuel (whose name means "I asked God for him") was born, she dedicated him to God through the priest Eli saying,

 “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. 27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.”

Consecration flows out of overwhelming gratefulness, marking someone or something as special, sacred, holy. It is a person or thing which is given (as much as a person might give another person!) into service to God. 

It is a preparation for something amazing which is about to happen to the consecrated person or thing. A way of getting ready to be an instrument of God's peace and love ... or maybe even an instrument of God's judgement.

Have you ever felt this kind of overwhelming-ness? That total surrender to God of a person or a thing you love that much in order to prepare them for something amazing?

I bet you have but maybe you didn't have a name for it. But now you do! Consecration--to dedicate someone or something to God.

If you haven't done this before, what are you waiting for? What are you willing to consecrate today?