9-4-2023

Good Morning All,

        John14:3; “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” 

    Here is a touchy question, are you a person who will loan out your things?  This can be a serious dilemma for some people, especially for the little quirks that we all have.  Mine are books.  I have a lot of books, but I am hesitant to loan them out.  If I loan a book to you, I trust you completely.  Some people are this way about their tools, or their special silverware, or cookware.  Some people will loan out clothes while others would never think about it.  One thing about loaning things out, it shows trust in the other person.

    One thing that we often don’t see is that all of the relationships that we develop with other Christian brothers and sisters are really only loans from God.  See in our verse “I will come again and will take you to myself.”  To a believer, our destiny is heaven and then the resurrection.  It is a great future.  But until this happens, we wait here on earth.  In order to make this wait a little more tolerable, God gives us the gift of companionship.  This gift comes in the form of spouses, children, siblings, parents, friends, and whatever other relationships we have.

    Yet these gifts don’t all last our lifetime.  Some of them may end sooner than we plan or expect.  While this may be uncomfortable or sad to us, it is the truth.  Our relationships are only loans from God.  One day, they will return to God.  One day we will have to give them back. 

     God gives us these gifts of relationships to help us as we go through our life here. They are to be treasured and never taken for granted.  We can never fully know God’s will so we should never feel we have many tomorrows.  This isn’t to make us sad or lonely, just cognizant of the fact that our many relationships may cease as we know them sooner than we plan.  So, God encourages us to maximize these relationships while we have them. This is why he encourages us to “not let the sun go down on your anger” or for us to reconcile with our brother as soon as we can.  Forgiveness is always the key for us to remember in order for our relationships to continue on.

    We also need to remember that while our relationships here are important; our truly important relationship lasts forever.  God love for us is eternal.  It is through his love and forgiveness that we have everlasting life.  We will live with God and all believers forever!  One day, after Jesus has returned, we will all live together in the re-created creation.  All of those who we loved in the past, who lived in faith, will be there.  The “loaner” relationships will fade away as eternal ones grow.  We will live together in joyous praise and wondrous love.

Dearest Father, help us to see that while our relationships here in this life are important, they are only loans from you.  Help us when we feel the loss of these relationships.  Keep us focused on your grace and mercy which is active in our lives.  Be with those who especially feel the loss of someone close at this time and give them the comfort of your Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret