Skip to main content

God's Hope Floats

 


Friends, it is a little TOO easy to relate to the familiar Noah’s Ark story of Genesis.  However, teaching it to a multi-aged class this Sunday taught me something new.  Noah put his reminder on the ground where he would be able to touch it and to remember that even a seemingly forever-flood comes to an end.  

Faithfulness means remembering that God is with us.  God put a reminder in the sky where we can remember to look up, to look around, and to remember that God’s love cannot be overcome by any kind of flood, fears, or sorrow.  It had not occurred to me, until today, that we need to build a reminder for ourselves, too. Like Noah, we know that these days will seem far away by next year.  However, we need to remember that isolation, fear, and tiredness do not last forever; God has set a promise in the sky.  

So, I encourage our families to build a touchstone in your house or garden to remind us that God’s hope floats.  You might read the God’s Hope Floats story of Noah from our website and write  what you learned on the stones.  

  • What do you want to set aside for yourself in the future? 
  • What will help you see hope the next time you feel isolated, afraid, and overwhelmed? 
  • What will you say to yourself to remember to look up? 

The next challenge may not be a pandemic requiring 40 days and nights of isolation, but remember that God will be with us then, too.  God is and was and will be. 

Peace, 

Kat.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

And on the seventh day...

Figure 1 http://www.montreat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mountains-2-400x250-300x187.jpg We think of “Sabbath” as a time to NOT DO something.  We stop.  We wait.  We rest.  We sit.  However, that is a lot of work!  I think of Sabbath as “making a space.”  It is an active choosing, remembering, and prioritizing a holy space for God.  It is less about “letting go” and more about “leaning in” to the Breath of the Holy Spirit.  In this context Sabbath is a return to our making.  You see, in the beginning “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). It is the breath of the Lord God that stirs dust into human.  It is the breath of the Lord God that makes us living and gives us a life.  Therefore, “Sabbath” – a time for rest and renewal, is an opportunity to reach for that breath of God which gives u...

Where is the Love--Guest Blogger Rev. Caroline Dennis

(Spiritual Practices for Families: Giving Thanks) Where is the Love? In December, amidst the wrappings and the shouts of glee, we found a quiet time to come to the manger and contemplate the great Love that God sent, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Here, as sparkling Christmas lights give way to snow and rain and ice, as gathered family gives way to bill paying and schedule keeping, how might we hold on those manger moments when we embraced the Love that embraces us? In these more ordinary days, can we still see the light that leads us to Bethlehem, to the ordinary extraordinary places where Love shows up? Here is my invitation to you, and to your children:  Pause... in the middle of your "what's next" life... to see, hear, touch, smell, taste... all the amazing that is right here and now.  Point it out to one another like we might point out the twinkling lights on a Christmas tree.  Give thanks... for the warmth of the sweater, the wag of the do...

“For a time such as this…”

The book of Esther is a difficult one, but it is important.  It speaks of power! There is personal power, royal power, and providential power.  It is a book that can be difficult to discuss with children and anyone who has been voiceless; however, it is not a book exhaulting the victim.  Esther is not a submissive girl who gives up.  She has inner strength and power.  She lives her life and draws on her community.  When the time comes, she uses her wisdom to be a vessel for the will of God.  Her uncle tells her, “perhaps you have been made royal for a time such as this.”  We often skip the “royal,” in our attempt to make the message universal.  However, we forget that we are children of "the king of all creation" and therefore “royal.”  I cannot help wondering how the Rev. Becca Stevens hears the book of Esther? Rev. Stevens works with women who have been commercialized and abused.  She teaches that "#LoveHeals." ...