At a Bar B.Q. restaurant I recently ordered a two-meat dinner of sliced brisket and sausage. When I finished cutting the brisket into normal size bites, I had a total of six bites of rather thin sliced meat. I know the price of beef is increasing, but this clearly was not the portion I wanted. It set me thinking about “portions” and took me back to a painful event several years ago when the will of a family member was read and I was notified that I, and two other members of the family, had been deleted from the will. My portion was eliminated. I was reminded that the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah was once lamenting over what he believed to be his less-than-acceptable circumstances, when he relied on the words of the Psalmist, and paraphrased, “The LORD is my portion . . . therefore I hope in Him!” (Psalm 73:26; Lamentations 3:24). Various translations render the word “portion” as “inheritance,” “all I have,” and “my lot in life.” Few get to this verse of hope because of the beautiful and oft-quotes verses that precede it, related to God’s mercies and compassions being new every morning. But the hope rests in our portion of life, all that we really have, our total inheritance, the Lord.
Comments