Mezuzah

A while ago I bought a Mezuzah for our home, and recently was able to go through the ceremony of putting it up on our doorpost.

Having a Mezuzah is an ancient Jewish custom that takes a literal view of the following verses:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes [origin of phylacteries]. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" - Deut. 4: 6-9

and also:

"And it shall be that if you diligently obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul...I will give you the rain for your land in its season...that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled. Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the LORD's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you. Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children...when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days...may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth" - Deut. 11: 13-21.

A Mezuzah means different things to different people, but for me, it is a way of connecting with Jesus and His Jewish roots, and also a reminder for me that God is who He promises, and that He is faithful from begginning to end.

As I walk by the Mezuzah as I enter and leave my home, I am reminded of who God was, is, and is to come.


*For more thoughts and some history on the tradition of the Mezuzah, click here and here.
**For information on the ceremony and use, click here.