Today is St. Patrick’s Day…a day when we wear green, eat Lucky Charms, and celebrate all things Irish.
But today I also want to think a little bit and have some discussions in my family about who St. Patrick really way.
He was a Christian missionary who shared his remarkable faith among the people of Ireland.
His real name was Patricius Sucatus, called Sucat for short, and he lived in England around the year 400 AD.
He grew up in a loving, Christian family. But one day at the age of sixteen he was captured by pirates from the east coast of Ireland and sold as a slave to an Irish chieftain who renamed him Patrick.
As a slave his job was to tend to his master’s pigs.
As he was working among other slaves, he realized how different the loving, faithful God he knew was from the gods the people around him believed in. He learned to love Jesus more and more as he served among these lost people.
After six years as a slave he was able to escape and go back home to his parents, but he did not forget the people of Ireland.
Patrick went to school to study the Bible and returned to Ireland as a missionary.
He stayed in Ireland for the rest of his life and led many people to believe in Christ as their savior.
The story of St. Patrick reminds me of the story of Joseph in the Bible.
Joseph was also sold as a slave.
Through Joseph’s faithfulness, he was used in delivering his family (the very ones who sold him as a slave) from a terrible famine.
Before his death Joesph reassured his brothers that God had a greater plan.
As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people.
Exodus 50:20
In the same way, God turned the evil that was meant for the young Patrick in selling him as a slave into good by using him to bring the good news of deliverance and salvation to the people of Ireland.
Today as I do fun activities with my children for St. Patrick’s day, I will remember the life of a faithful servant.
I will also remember that our lives are not determined by luck, but rather by God’s good and perfect will.