Fear, Happiness, and Dogs

Psalm 12i:1-5, Genesis 2:18-24, Mark 7:24-30

Happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
    who walks in his ways.

Psalm 128:1

Psalm 128:1 sets the tone to help us understand the Genesis and Mark passages for today. Finish this sentence…Happiness is ____________________.

The psalmist defines happiness as fear of the Lord. The story of the Syrophoenician woman shows us what it means to fear the Lord. This outsider, Gentile, has utmost respect for the Lord. She knows the only one that heal her daughter from the demon is Jesus himself. She has faith. She also recognizes that as an outsider it may out of Jesus’ realm to help her, but that does not stop her (“even dogs eat from the crumbs at the Master’s table”). She knows she needs Divine intervention in her daughter’s life. Jesus’s recognizes her faith and heals her daughter. The woman sought happiness for her daughter and thus found the Lord and proclaimed her faith.

In Genesis 2, God saw that man was not happy. It was important to God for man to be happy, to not be alone. So, God created another human. God wants God’s children to be happy.

Take courage, brothers and sisters. Continue your faith in God. Continue to seek after the Lord for healing and peace. Just as God saw Adam and noticed it was not good for him to be alone, God sees you. God sees your hurt, your fear, your loneliness, your anxiety, your weariness. God wants to heal and help. Know that God is there for you.