When we find ourselves upside down, flying through the air in the midst of an accident, it is too late to put on a seatbelt. Life is similar in that we encounter circumstances we didn’t see coming and if we’re not prepared, if we’re just coasting without a seatbelt, we will end up far worse off than we could have. For centuries, the Shema has been for the people of God a tool of remembering and realigning themselves to the way of God. When we hear and obey this beautiful command, we will be prepared for any and every situation this life may throw at us.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.