Good Morning All,
Proverbs 18:24; “A man of many
companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a
brother.”
One of the more fascinating side effects of
the covid lockdown is the proliferation of internet-based communication, almost
like something out of the “Jetsons.” There was Zoom, Skype, Facetime and myriads
of others that allowed us to be distanced and yet be there. It is amazing how we can stay in contact with
each other anymore.
I think back to when I was in high school
and college; if you wanted to be in contact you either wrote a letter or made a
long-distanced phone call, which was expense.
If you mailed a letter, you waited until the other person got it and
then waited for them to write back. It
was difficult to keep in touch and we often felt as if the friendship or the
family was drifting apart a little. You
felt like you were farther away than you wanted to be.
Sometimes, we feel that way about
God. Sometimes, it feels like He is a long
way away and not answering his mail very fast (or his phone battery is
dead). Most of us know those times. A family member is lying there close to
death, we have a lot we want to say but don’t know how. We wonder where God is; is he listening at
all? We are finally getting things to
feel like they are going smoothly; then the car dies and how do we afford a
different one. We finally find the
perfect job and our spouse gets transferred to a different town, now what, God
are you listening at all? The neighbor
kid who went off to join the army just came home without any legs, how can this
happen?
Sometimes it seems that we are all alone
and the weight of the whole world is on our shoulders. It can even seem like all our friends are no
longer around to even care let alone help us.
Even though it doesn’t seem like it, God is still there holding us
close, closer than anyone. We still live
in a sinful world; bad things happen even to God’s children. The difference is that we know that God is
still there to comfort us and to console us and to give us courage to give us
hope. We live with the hope of the
resurrection. We live with the hope of
eternal life. We live with the certainty
that we will be re-united with our loved ones and all the faithful who will
gather at the throne of grace to celebrate the feast that will never end.
Along with that promise, God has given us
a family that will love us and comfort us with hugs and shared tears. We still grieve at death, but we grieve as
one who knows that soon we will all gather together in heaven. God may feel like he is far away but he
really isn’t that is just our sinful nature trying to drive us away from God so
the devil can torment us. Yet God is
holding us close standing with us closer than any friend or brother ever can.
We can, and are, always in contact with
God. He is as close as your Bible and
your prayers. We can read what God
reveals to us and he will listen to your prayers. The Spirit will bring you peace, the kind of
peace that only God can bring.
Dear Father, we rest in
your loving arms. In your mercy we find
rest. Protect us from the devil and his
ways and give us that sense of hope and comfort that we can only receive from
you. In Jesus’ precious name we pray,
amen,
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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