Hello Faith Pals,
Happy May! Where did January, February, March and April go?
One of the deep privileges in ministry, is meeting different people, and learning something of their story. God has made us all quite different-and isn’t that a good thing! All of us have been through hard times, but we have also been able to celebrate wonderful occasions, perhaps the birth of a child, a wedding, a significant birthday, a graduation, etc. Good health, or healing from an illness or operation are also times for celebration, special occasions when we should give thanks.
Where is God in your life story? Reflect back on your life, and see God’s hand. Sometimes it is good to travel back to your early memories, and see God in your childhood. When we are young, we are often more open to be free with our praise, or questions-more receptive to God’s miracles around us. Who spent hours in the grass, watching beetles crawl, or ants parade back to their nests? Who sat under trees, watching the branches sway, or, lying flat on your back, imagining pictures in cloud formations? Or who remembers having an evening bath, and curling up warm and snug in bed? A parent’s love can mirror God’s love. If we watch the little, we are more likely to notice the big.
As we get older, we have a tendency to push God off the page, perhaps taking credit for something that is really God’s doing. Where have we seen God’s hand writing our story? Have there been big changes? Don’t forget Simon Peter, transformed from a humble fisherman, to becoming the leader of the church.
In our life story, there is no The End. We are eternal beings, we continue on. Ecclesiastes 3: 11 says: ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…’ (NIV). After our earthly life, there will be more…much more. In the book The Last Battle, the final book in the Narnia series, the children cross over into the afterlife. C. S. Lewis writes: ‘But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.’
Live out God’s story, which is written between the words, in the spaces on the pages of your life.
Blessings (and keep warm, dry and safe!)
Barbara Allen
