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Madonna Feeding the Christ Child,
1511 by Reymerswaele, Marinus van. Prado, Madrid. Credit: mediastorehouse.co.uk |
"God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring'. " Acts 17:27-28
Paul is speaking here to Greeks, and as a literate person, he quotes poetry from the Cretan philosopher Epimenides, and then a local hero to Tarsus, the Cilician Stoic philosopher Aratus. Very cleaver.
We are all highly dependent, though some feel it more that others. Rich western societies appear to be the most dependent. Switch off the electricity and our whole society grinds to a halt.
Dependency is frowned upon, yet this verse reminds us that just as the sun rises in the morning and gives us life, so our relationship with the Creator fills us everyday with warmth, light and energy.
The Madonna feeding the Christ child symbolises the baby's dependance on it's mother for life. Jesus went on to become the life giver for all. We eat his body and drink his blood (reference here breast milk) to keep ourselves alive.
PRAYER: Everyday I thank you for sustaining me through the night, and being their before me in the morning.
PS Epimenides was famous for his paradox, "All Cretan's are liars". Now is that true, or is he having us on?
Aratus Phenomena 1-5
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