Come Home to God

Dear Friends,

When my children were very young, we were so thrilled when they said their first words that we would clap and cheer them on! Eventually one word alone would either launch us into conversation or make us shake our heads to wonder “Why?”

In the past year, that may be our most common question: Why? Why did we have to experience challenges alone, as a family, or even as a world? I invite you to think of your own specific “why” question for just a moment.

In our scripture this week, we hear this message of hope from the Gospel of John 1:1-18: “…and the Word was made flesh.” We may ask, "Why would God enter into our world as a child?" The answer is in the same passage.

“14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth … 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known…” (NRSV)

Jesus Christ walked alongside of his people centuries ago and we are promised this very day that Jesus dwells in our greatest joys and our deepest heartaches. But still we cry out, “WHY?” The answer is because God will stop at nothing to reach out and connect with us so that we know the depth of God’s love that has been, is, and will always be a love for you, me, and all of God’s creation.

Then maybe the question is "Why are we called to gather for worship, learning, and service?" We gather so that, like the generations before us, the generations after us will all know and continue to be witnesses to others that God’s story of hope is our very own story of life everlasting. It is the story of God loving us in our days of laugher and holding us in our times of tears. It is God with us, God for us, God saving us, not because of our acts, but out of God’s promise to give us a hope that is life now and forever.

Blessings to you and your household as this New Year is just about to begin.

Pastor Katie