Galatians 6:10

I remember it well. It was high school art class when the teacher came up to one of the students and said, “Come with me.” Off they went to visit the principal. He was an identical twin who had been in an earlier art class that day, and he was back again in the class where his brother should have been. Apparently, this happened often, and the teacher suspected it. That morning the teacher put a dot of ink on the back of his ear; when he came back, he was a marked man.

There is a tragic story (vision) in Ezekiel where men were marked for judgment. God was dividing the people into two categories: Those who cared, and those who did not. All who sighed and groaned over the evil things that were being committed in the city were marked with a dot of ink. They were spared, but those without the caring mark would not be. The time had come to stand before God.

God puts the mark of grace on people. Cain was not only the first murderer in the Bible; he was also the first to receive a mark of grace: “And the Lord set a mark upon Cain…” (Genesis 4:15).

I pray to have both marks: caring and grace. There was a man who stood in a church meeting and said, “I don’t care if my neighbor goes to hell or not.” Everyone was stunned by those unexpected words. Then the man regretfully continued, “That is what bothers me, ‘I don’t care.’ May God forgive me.”

Each day brings us plenty of opportunity to care for others. Loving one another is certainly a mark of the Family of God; that is one of the ways we can be like Jesus. When the Lord chooses to reach out in loving compassion, He may use our hands, arms, and heart.

“Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares,
His heart is touched with my grief;
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary,
I know my Savior cares.”