Friday,
April 28, 2023
“Now go and call
together all the elders of Israel. Tell them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your
ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me. He told me, “I have been watching closely, and
I see how the Egyptians are treating you. I have promised to rescue you from your
oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to
a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites,
Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.”’ “The elders of Israel will accept your
message. Then you and the elders must go
to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met
with us. So please let us take a
three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord, our
God.’ “But I know that the king of Egypt
will not let you go unless a mighty hand forces him. So I will raise my hand and strike the
Egyptians, performing all kinds of miracles among them. Then at last he will let you go. And I will cause the Egyptians to look
favorably on you. They will give you gifts when you go so you will not leave
empty-handed. Every Israelite woman will ask for articles of silver and gold
and fine clothing from her Egyptian neighbors and from the foreign women in
their houses. You will dress your sons
and daughters with these, stripping the Egyptians of their wealth.” Exodus 3:16-22
Starting a new
chapter in life can be exciting, uncertain, and even downright
scary. Truth be told, life, however
short or long, is a series of new chapters.
The final new chapter for all of us on earth is leaving this life’s
cares, pain, loved ones, and virtually everything we’ve accumulated. Christians (myself included) believe the
final earthly new chapter is but the
introductory words of the gift our God bestows upon us, the book
without end…eternal life.
At this point in
life I can only reasonably conclude that I have many less years ahead of me than
behind me. That does afford the
opportunity to do some evaluation of what life has held, and how I have been
held up, even in my weakest moments.
Looking back over ones’ journey is far more important than merely nostalgia. It had better be so…even the word is
formidable. The word nostalgia
is formed from joining two thoughts, returning home and pain[1]. The mental
image is nothing less than picking at an old wound!
Standing on the
verge of full retirement[2] I’m doing a lot of musing over what will occupy my days
hence. The excitement phase of any new
chapter, being ready to launch itself into the unknown, will fade into
development of whatever God has in store, and I cannot wait to see the color
and shape of a new adventure. If this
new ride through God’s vineyard leaves me even half as breathless as the
previous 75 years, it’s going to be white-knuckles on the dashboard all the way!
In some way I identify
strongly with Abraham. God called his
name and said: Come here, Abe…I want to show you something. Life really got interesting when Abraham
responded: OK…you lead…I’ll follow.
But that’s the
meaning of faith, isn’t it?
For You Today
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper explore
some of these: Just When... and The Comfort of Being Known
Title Image: via Pixabay.com Images without citation are in
public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
[2] My
first retirement (2013) was from full-time to part-time
(somewhat an oxymoron in pastoral work).
No comments:
Post a Comment