Dear Friends
Yesterday I was jealous. And I told Rick that I was when he recounted the story of the mama turkey who greeted him yesterday morning by the front door of the church with her brood of newly born babies. Jealous because I would have loved to have witnessed that!
It reminded me of a few years back now when a duck laid her eggs outside of the church I was serving. Mama had carefully nested the eggs in the landscape of the church, hidden from most folks who would walk by. The staff and I were paying attention, though. We watched as mama sat on that nest almost all of the time. Once we were able to catch the view of one egg. Then a few days later, we could see that there were actually 10 eggs! As time passed and no babies hatched, we began to wonder if the babies were ever coming. Some told us to wait it out, that they would eventually hatch. Others suggested she had a miscarriage of eggs, and that eventually she would figure it out and leave. But after four weeks, most of us had decided that those eggs were probably never going to hatch, no matter how long that hen sat on them.
Then overnight, hope we had lost proved to be stronger than our doubt. To our surprise, ducklings were popping their heads out from underneath Mom. Empty egg shells proved the truth. We had ducklings!!
Hope is always stronger than doubt. Hope is the power to wait out a season that looks impossible, knowing that God is at work and something good will come of it. Hope is the strength to love even while there is a risk of getting hurt. Hope is the ability to stare a pandemic in the face and trust that a new season will come, if we are willing to do our part. Hope is the righteous anger that moves us to acknowledge and work to change systems of injustice. Hope is the force the enables us to grieve the passing of a loved one with a deep and abiding trust in the promise of heaven.
This hope is powerful! It has the ability to keep you looking to the future, even when voices tell you it is over. May the power of hope overwhelm you today and always! May the power of hope cause you to set aside the things that keep new life from forming. May the power of hope cause you to patiently work toward a new future that is already being born among us.
Blessings,
Pastor Becky Jo
PS
Way to be church, friends! Last Sunday, while several folks worked in the garden to harvest produce for PROP, others of you drove through to say “hi” to the staff and donate food and financial resources for the same. On Sunday you donated 382 pounds of non-perishable food and over $800 to PROP, on top of whatever fresh produce was donated from our garden. That’s amazing! I’m so proud of what we can accomplish together, even when we cannot be physically together for worship and small groups. Way to be church!
Yesterday I was jealous. And I told Rick that I was when he recounted the story of the mama turkey who greeted him yesterday morning by the front door of the church with her brood of newly born babies. Jealous because I would have loved to have witnessed that!
It reminded me of a few years back now when a duck laid her eggs outside of the church I was serving. Mama had carefully nested the eggs in the landscape of the church, hidden from most folks who would walk by. The staff and I were paying attention, though. We watched as mama sat on that nest almost all of the time. Once we were able to catch the view of one egg. Then a few days later, we could see that there were actually 10 eggs! As time passed and no babies hatched, we began to wonder if the babies were ever coming. Some told us to wait it out, that they would eventually hatch. Others suggested she had a miscarriage of eggs, and that eventually she would figure it out and leave. But after four weeks, most of us had decided that those eggs were probably never going to hatch, no matter how long that hen sat on them.
Then overnight, hope we had lost proved to be stronger than our doubt. To our surprise, ducklings were popping their heads out from underneath Mom. Empty egg shells proved the truth. We had ducklings!!
Hope is always stronger than doubt. Hope is the power to wait out a season that looks impossible, knowing that God is at work and something good will come of it. Hope is the strength to love even while there is a risk of getting hurt. Hope is the ability to stare a pandemic in the face and trust that a new season will come, if we are willing to do our part. Hope is the righteous anger that moves us to acknowledge and work to change systems of injustice. Hope is the force the enables us to grieve the passing of a loved one with a deep and abiding trust in the promise of heaven.
This hope is powerful! It has the ability to keep you looking to the future, even when voices tell you it is over. May the power of hope overwhelm you today and always! May the power of hope cause you to set aside the things that keep new life from forming. May the power of hope cause you to patiently work toward a new future that is already being born among us.
Blessings,
Pastor Becky Jo
PS
Way to be church, friends! Last Sunday, while several folks worked in the garden to harvest produce for PROP, others of you drove through to say “hi” to the staff and donate food and financial resources for the same. On Sunday you donated 382 pounds of non-perishable food and over $800 to PROP, on top of whatever fresh produce was donated from our garden. That’s amazing! I’m so proud of what we can accomplish together, even when we cannot be physically together for worship and small groups. Way to be church!
RSS Feed
