I have always believed that one of the hardest parts of being a Christian is remembering how much God loves me when the circumstances in my life make me wonder if God even cares.
In the last few weeks, we’ve been listening to some wonderful promises. We’ve pictured Christ as a “Good Shepherd” who helps us to find “still waters” when we need a safe place to get a drink, and who guides us through all sorts of scary places when it’s easy for us to get off-track. We’ve listened to Jesus talk about Heaven, and we’ve listened carefully as Jesus has told us that He’s going to take us to Heaven when we die.
But we also live in a world where life’s tough, don’t we? Even though Christ speaks to us in a way that gives us hope and peace, the world’s pretty good at taking that hope and peace away from us, isn’t it? That’s what it is to live in the “Already, but Not Yet”.
In this week’s message, “Already, but Not Yet”, we reflect upon a wonderful promise as we think about Christ’s words: “I will not leave you orphaned.” (John 14:18) Christ tells us that He will continue to speak to us and to bless us with the wisdom we need to make good decisions even as we move through incredibly difficult times. God promises to dry our tears and give us courage when we lose things in life that we never imagined we’d ever lose. God promises to send the people that we need to lift us up and encourage us when we’re struggling. And as that happens (as we recalled last week), we can discover that “All will be well – and all will be well – and all manner of things will be well,” (Julian of Norwich)
The words “I will not leave you orphaned” are words that can carry us through life. The words “I will not leave you orphaned” are the promise of a Risen Christ who has told us that He’ll continue to stand beside us in every circumstance of life to hold us, to sustain us, and to make us whole.
Blessings!