Looking Back
It’s back to school season in my house. In one week, the kids will be entering a new school year. For me it is always such a weird juxtaposition. The kids talk about the loss of summer and lament the “freedoms” they will soon lose. I look back and part of me would love to be so young and carefree again. They see homework an obligation, I see lost friends and a more innocent time. They here the tick of the clock until the freedom of the evening. I hear the tick of the clock until the work day ends….and then I have to make dinner, help with homework, pack lunches….
Looking back I know now what I didn’t know then.
The things that I hated the most became some of my biggest blessings that shaped my adult life.
I recognize that now.
How often is that true in Scripture?
Joseph was sold into slavery…and God saved His people through that.
Moses killed and Egyptian and lost His life in the palace, and God would choose him to deliver His people.
David would be anointed king and then spend two decades on the run, but close to God.
Elijah would hide in the wilderness but find hope in the way the Lord took care of him.
Perhaps what you are going through now is God setting the stage for something big?
What if the hurt and the pain are pointing to something greater?
And if even the worst happen…our life is lost…what has the Lord promised us? Deliverance from sin death and the devil.
As you consider that I want you to consider these words from Ecclesiastes 3:9-14
What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
When you are done reflecting on that ask yourself one question.
How has God blessed you?
I bet you can find Jesus present in the hard moments.
See you Sunday!
- Pastor Dan