It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads. (Rev. 13:16)
Nineteen seventy-four. That was the last year the Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl. Nineteen eighty-four was the last time they made it to the championship, and it was the year before my birth. I was born into a family of die-hard Dolphins fans, and I have rooted for a losing team my whole life. Since there are not many Miami fans in Indiana, I find myself getting excited when I see someone sporting the orange and green logo. Suddenly, there is a common ground that connects us to each other in a way that only fans of a life-long losing team can understand.
There is a mark in the book of Revelation that connects people, but it is a mark to avoid—the mark of the enemy of God. Paul wrote of the right kind of mark when he said in Galatians 6:17, “For I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.”
We all fall short of the glory of God—the rich and the poor, the pastor and the addict, the single mom and the mother who is happily married. Sin does not only happen to a certain people group. In the same way, our stories of God’s grace should unite us. When we share our stories of redemption through Jesus, we can get excited, knowing that we are on the same team. Unlike the Miami Dolphins, this team has the victory.
Ask someone their story today, looking for God’s story within it.
Heather Mazellan is a student at Wesley Seminary, thankful wife, and joyful mother to three kids.
© 2022 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
