It’s Super Bowl weekend, and at my house that means a spread of guacamole and chips and seven-layer dip.
When I was a kid, I was watching football with my family before I could even read. I owe this to the fact that I grew up with two older brothers and zero sisters. And if you lived in Northern California in the 1980s, then you were probably a 49er fan.
We never had much money, but every year my dad would find a way to buy tickets, usually in the end zone, to take his boys to see a real NFL game in San Francisco. I was eight years old when my dad finally agreed to let me tag along. He handed me a ticket; then he pushed up my sleeve, and with a black permanent marker he wrote three numbers on the inside of my arm, from my elbow to my wrist. Each number corresponded with the section-row-seat where we would sit in the stadium.
Dad said, “If we ever get separated, you don’t have to worry. There are ushers at every entrance. All you have to do is show one of them the numbers on your arm, and they’ll bring you back to where your brothers and I are sitting.”
The thought hadn’t occurred to me that I could get lost at a football game, but those numbers on my arm reassured me. They were like a secret code that would help me find my way back to my father.
Decades have now passed since my first live NFL game. And this may sound silly, but a football game on TV today reminds me of some of the happier moments in my childhood. I will forever love a good football game.
Those numbers on my arm have long since washed off, but by a quiet grace I have found another source of assurance, another way back home. Just as those numbers on my arm could at one time help me find my way back to my father, God has given us his Word for all time to guide us back to our Father.
Like the North Star pointing the way home for sailors who have no other fixed point to rely on, God’s Word shows us the way Home.
This weekend, whether you tune in to the biggest game of the year or not, I pray you do turn to the pages of God’s Word. For it’s in him alone we find true rest.
Shalom.
Denise
Do you have a Super Bowl tradition?
A Few Notes…
*Last year I wrote another article on this theme of finding our way home, and it became one of my most read pieces on Substack, so I’ve gone back and recorded an audio voiceover for it. It’s called, “Finding Home.” Give it a listen.
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And Lastly…
*No part of this newsletter — nor anything I have ever published — has been made with Artificial Intelligence (AI) or ghostwriters. All of my words, including any accidental typos, are my own, except for when I quote others with appropriate citations and links.
Thank you so much for the transcription! Tremendous help to have it for podcast. It is a wonderful way to guide the hearing loss/deafness population. Thank you again.
I can hear your sweet voice as I read your words. Love how you pull the word-threads together and point back to the Father. The topic of "home" is probably my favorite. Love always brings us home.