Lent devotional

Hero to Zero

Posted on by Betsy

In an attempt to keep my content “evergreen,” I try not to reference dates. However, as a public service, I need to inform you that this Sunday is Palm Sunday. I am breaking my evergreen rule because I realize many of us have lost track of what day it is as this pandemic continues. The struggle is real, folks. Somebody mentioned that everyday feels like Saturday, with the entire household at home looking for something to do.

So let’s get ready for our virtual Palm Sunday parade. It saddens me DEEPLY that we will not gather in our sanctuaries and watch the little children process down the center aisle, waving palm branches as we sing “Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna to the King!” So please, if you will, get up after you read this and parade around your house in your jammies, waving your palms.

What? You don’t have any palm branches? Look at your hands. Yep. Two palms, right there. God provides!

John 21 (The Message)

1-3 When they neared Jerusalem, having arrived at Bethphage on Mount Olives, Jesus sent two disciples with these instructions: “Go over to the village across from you. You’ll find a donkey tethered there, her colt with her. Untie her and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you’re doing, say, ‘The Master needs them!’ He will send them with you.”

4-5 This is the full story of what was sketched earlier by the prophet:

Tell Zion’s daughter,
“Look, your king’s on his way,
    poised and ready, mounted
On a donkey, on a colt,
    foal of a pack animal.”

Try to imagine this scene. Jesus is at the height of his popularity, albeit fleeting. He is making a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The crowd is going wild….think Super Bowl Parade wild. Some understand the prophecy that is being fulfilled. Some have seen his miracles. Some remember the lunch he served on the hillside to the 5,000. Others have just come to see what the ruckus is about.

Here comes our king, riding on a donkey so small that he probably has to hold his feet up or they would drag on the road. Something is wrong with this picture.

6-9 The disciples went and did exactly what Jesus told them to do. They led the donkey and colt out, laid some of their clothes on them, and Jesus mounted. Nearly all the people in the crowd threw their garments down on the road, giving him a royal welcome. Others cut branches from the trees and threw them down as a welcome mat. Crowds went ahead and crowds followed, all of them calling out, “Hosanna to David’s son!” “Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!” “Hosanna in highest heaven!”

As the parade goes on, people begin to feel discomforted. The optics in front of them are not jiving with their idea of “kingship.”

10 As he made his entrance into Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken. Unnerved, people were asking, “What’s going on here? Who is this?”

11 The parade crowd answered, “This is the prophet Jesus, the one from Nazareth in Galilee.”

But does anything good ever come from Nazareth?

Palm Sunday is the beginning of the downhill slide to the crucifixion, which is less than a week away. It didn’t take long for the crowd to turn from yelling his name in praise to yelling his name as their choice over Barabbas for the death penalty. Because his crown was not bejeweled and his mode of transportation was not a great white charger, their enthusiasm for this “king” began to wane.

Instead, he rode a humble donkey to receive a crown of thorns.

We can be guilty of this as well. At the moment of our enthusiastic conversion, or after a stirring retreat, or in the passion of a high and holy experience, it is easy to wave our palms and sing Hosannas. But when illness, disaster, betrayal, or pandemics come, we can easily begin to think, “What’s going on here? Who is this?”

Resist that. Change your idea of what your king should look like. You won’t always get the answer to prayer that you are hoping for…and that is often a good thing. Worshipping the king requires trusting that he works for the good of those who love him.

What you will get is a humble savior, a crucified and risen Lord, and the king of kings. See him for what he is!

This king is the one who went from hero to zero for the sake of the world, ensuring your eternal life. God SO loved the world he sent us this only son, who took on beatings, scorn, and shame for the salvation of his people.

Hosanna, indeed!

Virtual Palm Sunday Prep Photo by Colin Snider

Let Loose

Posted on by Betsy

I apologize in advance, but today’s devotional begins with a tragic and bizarre story.

My sister-in-law once owned a rental home in the town where I lived. She had a faithful older gentleman renter who was always on time with his rent, and liked to do small repairs to her property. So when months went by with no rent check, and calls to his home went unanswered, she contacted her brother (my husband) and asked him to meet her at the house so she could check on her renter.

The rest reads like a Twilight Zone episode.

As they approached the house, one remarked to the other that if they saw a convergence of black flies on the inside of the windows, they would know the worst had happened.

Cue the black flies.

However, the lawn was mowed and there were no newspapers on the lawn, giving them hope. But a quick trip around the back revealed that the nice lawn guy had been stacking the papers up on the back porch as he mowed every week.

Cue the unnoticed, over-stuffed mailbox.

Beginning to put two and two together, they called the non-emergency line for the local police station and asked for assistance.

Cue the young officer in a full Hazmat suit.

You can probably guess the rest of the story. The gentleman had perished inside the house two months earlier. When the officers opened the front door, it was obvious.

Cue the horrific smell.

The retelling of this sad story is offered to put into context what you are about to read. In the book of John, the story is told of the death of Lazarus. Jesus had been informed of his illness, but elected not to go in time to heal him. (Which, being Jesus, he could have easily done.)

Ever wonder why?

John 11 (The Message)

5-7 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days. After the two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

11 He said these things, and then announced, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I’m going to wake him up.”

12-13 The disciples said, “Master, if he’s gone to sleep, he’ll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine.” Jesus was talking about death, while his disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap.

14-15 Then Jesus became explicit: “Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there. You’re about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let’s go to him.”

You see, up to this point, Jesus had performed many miracles of illness-healing, lunch-multiplying, demon-casting, storm-calming, and water-walking. The disciples had witnessed all of it. But they didn’t know the one thing that was the most profound of all of Jesus’ miraculous powers: he had power over death.

37 Others among them said, “Well, if Jesus loved him so much, why didn’t he do something to keep him from dying? After all, he opened the eyes of a blind man.”

38-39 Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”

The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, “Master, by this time there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days!”

40 Jesus looked her in the eye. “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

And with that, the stone was removed and Jesus called Lazarus to walk out of the tomb.

The power of the resurrection is the greatest miracle of all. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. The glory of life after death was on display for all to see, and all who saw were invited to believe.

Do you believe? What needs to die in you so that you can see the glory of God in your life? Where is God inviting you to walk out of the stench of your decay and shed your grave clothes?

When Lazarus walked out, Jesus instructed his friends to “let loose” the burial strips of cloth that had bound up his body.

The invitation is the same for you. Let loose everything that is constricting your faith, confining your life, and walk free.

Child of God, COME FORTH.

The Light of New Life by Cheryl Smith

Dry Bones

Posted on by Betsy

The upswing this week in the number of virus cases and the subsequent death toll increases have taken hold, and we are now riding a steep, upward curve. An image of George Clooney’s fishing boat riding up a treacherous wave in the movie “The Perfect Storm” keeps flashing through my mind as I see the projections. The idea of the ocean’s power has always TERRIFIED me. What’s happening now also terrifies me.

This wave is not under our control, and it will result in dry bones. We will have these bones scattered all around us for a very long time: a dry-bones economy, a dry-bones social life, a dry-bones educational system, a dry-bones health care industry, and tragically, so many dry bones in hospital morgues all over the country. Dry bones everywhere.

Let’s take a dive into Ezekiel and remember a time when he encountered dry bones:

Ezekiel 37 (The Message)

 1-2 God grabbed me. God’s Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun.

3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Master God, only you know that.”

4 He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones: ‘Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!’”

5-6 God, the Master, told the dry bones, “Watch this: I’m bringing the breath of life to you and you’ll come to life. I’ll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You’ll come alive and you’ll realize that I am God!”

Oh, the HOPE! God says to the dry bones, “I’m bringing the breath of life to you and YOU’LL COME ALIVE.”

I believe with all my heart that we will come out of this with more flexible sinews, meat on our bones, and the breath of life in our lungs. These dry-bone days are a unique opportunity to really internalize the Word of God and become the people that we were designed to be.

God himself will breathe life into us. When the season of dry bones is over, we’ll come alive in a new and completely altered way. We will hope more fervently. We will love more deeply. We will APPRECIATE more fully. And we will serve more gladly.

There are two important things to do in the meantime.

  1. LISTEN. “Dry bones, LISTEN to the Message of God!”
  2. REALIZE. “You’ll come alive and you’ll REALIZE that I am God!”

Get ready. God promises we will come alive.

And guess what? We are one day closer to the end of this thing.

Dem Bones Gonna Rise Again Photo by Michelle Robertson

Life on God’s Terms

Posted on by Betsy

Toddlers are such unique creatures! Somewhere around age two to four, children move from being dependent babies to becoming individuals who are separate from their parents. This transition comes with independent thinking, resulting in children wanting to do things their way. Toddlerhood is all about trying to do life on their own terms…and it’s exhausting.

Our twin toddlers are in this stage right now, and the challenge is REAL. On any given day they refuse naps, are very particular about their clothing choices, insist on carrying their alligators all day, and will or won’t cooperate depending on their moods. Each day brings a new expression of stubborn independence.

I wonder if God ever looks at us doing the same thing and thinks to himself, “What a group of toddlers I created!” Thank God HE never gets exhausted.

Part of the challenge to “flatten the curve” of the pandemic is that some people refuse to give up freedoms they feel entitled to as part of living life on their own terms. This week a friend described watching a large group of teenagers doing “chicken fights” on the beach. It’s hard to practice social distancing on each other’s backs.

Doing life on God’s terms is always the better way. It involves asking God to move in and set up permanent residence. It requires us to give over our terms to receive the life he has promised:

Romans 8 (The Message)

9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him.

Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms.

It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself?

When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

I love how this passage points out that if God has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. This is an important reminder to us in this moment. The call to obedience we experience as followers of God should have prepared us for this season of doing hard things for the greater good.

God is calling us to think more of each other than we think of ourselves. That means following all the social distancing guidelines and demanding that our kids do so as well.

These are hard days. This season will be long, and requires a lot of sacrifice. But we know that when we live life on God’s terms, we will not only experience God living and breathing in us, but we will be delivered from that dead life of living only for ourselves. God’s spirit dwelling in us guarantees it, and blesses it.

Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh! Photo by Lisa Cobb Lawrence

Waiting

Posted on by Betsy

Raise your hand if you like to wait! Yeah, me neither.

We all have different tolerance levels when it comes to waiting. I know someone with a very low tolerance for wanting in line. His tolerance is SO low, he actually mentally calculates how many people are in each check-out line at the store, selects the one he thinks is the fastest, changes lines if he spots one moving faster, and then…I’m being serious here…calculates where we WOULD have been if we had chosen a different line.

Nobody likes to wait.

In Psalm 130, the psalmist is also waiting. He describes his waiting period as being in the “depths.” He is crying out to be heard. He begs God to listen:

Psalm 130 (New King James Version)

Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord;
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.

3 If You, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning—
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord;
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
8 And He shall redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.

Truly, the entire world is waiting right now. We are waiting for this pandemic to be over. We are waiting for life to return to normal. We are waiting to be able to worship together, send our kids off to school, take a trip, have a nice dinner out, hug our grandchildren, and not wake up in the morning feeling afraid.

While we collectively watch for the morning, remember this: with the Lord, there is mercy. He is filled with forgiveness. With him is abundant redemption. He will redeem us. And in his Word, we do hope.

Because we are one day closer to the end of this thing.

Waiting for Morning by Michelle Robertson

The Sure Thing

Posted on by Betsy

Stadiums are closed. There will be no Olympics this year. We have learned that there IS crying in baseball…when it disappears. Movies and concerts are cancelled. Bars, clubs, and even Las Vegas are shut down. All of the world’s “sure things” aren’t so sure anymore.

A good friend asked me recently how I come up with things to write about every day. He wondered if I was worried that I would eventually not have anything to say. Does he KNOW me?? I am never at a loss for words! But my confidence is not in my own verbosity. My confidence is in the endless flow of messages that comes from the Word of God. I believe with my whole heart that the Bible has something to say about EVERYTHING.

That is a sure thing.

So imagine my delight when the scriptures assigned for this week included Psalm 40. I know for certain that the psalmist did NOT write this during a pandemic. But look at how applicable this is for where we are today:

Psalm 40: 5-10 (The Message)

Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God,
    turn your backs on the world’s “sure thing,”
    ignore what the world worships;

Indeed, everything we worshipped two months ago is gone for now. So in this time, we have an opportunity to discover God-wonders.

The world’s a huge stockpile
    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.
Nothing and no one
    comes close to you!

We can’t even attend church. Any attempt to “be religious” or “act pious” is out the window. Put away your Sunday hats, ladies. The expression of our faith can only come through our actions, words, and deeds.

6 Doing something for you, bringing something to you—
    that’s not what you’re after.
Being religious, acting pious—
    that’s not what you’re asking for.
You’ve opened my ears
    so I can listen.

Our notions of everyday life have been altered, and we have been forced to adapt. Kids don’t go to school anymore. Parents don’t go to work outside the home for now. But God still invites us to come to his party and allow his Word to enter into our lives and become part of who we are.

7-8 So I answered, “I’m coming.
    I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I’m coming to the party
    you’re throwing for me.”
That’s when God’s Word entered my life,
    became part of my very being.

Pandemics are a time to relearn that God is the only sure thing we have. And when we relearn that, we have to go and tell it.

9-10 I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,
    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.
I didn’t keep the news of your ways
    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.

So here are your marching orders: tell it all. Tell people about how dependable God is. Don’t hold back! Share his love and truth.

I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.
    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth
For myself alone. I told it all,
    let the congregation know the whole story.

And let us remind one another that WE ARE ONE DAY CLOSER TO THE END OF THIS THING. And that’s a sure thing. Thanks be to God.

Sure Thing Sunrise by Michelle Robertson

Changing “Forever”

Posted on by Betsy

It is kind of hard to write about anything being ”forever“ right now. My concept of forever has changed in the last two weeks. Here are some things I just assumed would always be available forever:

Unfettered air travel.

Disney World open whenever I wanted to go.

Lovely, perfumed ladies hugging me in church every Sunday.

Tuesday morning staff meetings with my peeps, laughing, drinking coffee, and dreaming God’s dreams.

Attending my college’s Alumni Association Council meetings on our beautiful campus.

Going out to any restaurant on any given night.

Kissing my husband.

That last one might seem strange, but we have enacted a quarantine protocol in my house. My husband is a commercial airline pilot, and so he is considered essential personnel. Even with the drastic cut-back of flights, planes are still flying, delivering medical personnel and equipment to where they are needed, ferrying essential cargo, and returning families to their homes from far away places.

When he returns from a trip, he comes directly into the house and we begin a quarantine for 14 days. He sleeps in a separate room, uses a separate bathroom, and does not enter the kitchen. (This part may grieve me the most!! He is a great cook.) We don’t touch the same door knobs or light switches, and I sanitize everything. He doesn’t even pet the dog, and we maintain a 6-foot separation at all times. For 14 days. When he gets called out to fly again, the 14-day protocol will start all over again.

Like all of you, my concept of forever has changed.

So what is really forever?


Psalm 23 (New King James Version)

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
3 He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

Dwelling in the house of the Lord is the one FOREVER we can count on. God’s mercy is forever. God’s love is forever. God’s salvation is forever. And thank God, his forgiveness is forever.

So when things get back to normal and I can kiss the cook again, I know I will be forever grateful for the true and unchangeable forevers that we all can claim.

And guess what? We are one day closer to the end of this thing.

Yea, Though I Walk Through the Valley by Faye Gardner

Wake Up Call

Posted on by Betsy

See if this sounds at all familiar where you are. A family member blows up at another family member, and an onslaught of phone calls to the rest of the family ensues, each presenting their side of the encounter and trying to garner support.

A frustrated teenager slams her laptop closed and storms out of the kitchen because her younger siblings are chewing too loudly.

A friend gets angry, failing to recognize that the unreasonable response of his friend is because the guy is actually having a panic attack.

Overwhelmed spouses bicker to the point of silliness over kitchen duties.

Any time God’s children encounter a great deal of stress, we have two choices. We can let the situation bring out the worst in us, or we can take a deep breath and ask God to help us to be a light in the darkness.

The difference between the two choices is focus, intention, and a deep desire to do what pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 4 (New International Version)

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 

11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
    rise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.”

What if this season of great stress is an opportunity for us to discover Christ’s light in a new and more visible way? What if this time could result in many more seeing and following his light?

And what is your part in it, if not to wake up and be the light?

These are challenging thoughts for challenging days. Listen, it never hurts to take that deep breath BEFORE you react, and ask God to use you as a light in someone else’s darkness. When this season finally turns into the next, won’t you want to look back at the many ways Christ shone through you?

Let us seize this opportunity to live as children of the light and do the things that please God the most. Let us reject the fruitless deeds of darkness and turn on the high beams of God’s mercy, grace, and HOPE in this dark time. I believe that people, like moths, are always attracted to the Light.

And guess what? Today, we are one day closer to the end of this thing.

Wake Up and Be the Light. By Michelle Robertson

Clear Lenses

Posted on by Betsy

Every contact lens wearer knows the joy of “new contacts day.“ Oh, the delight of opening that sterile, sealed container and slipping new, pristine contacts onto our weary eyeballs! The clarity, the comfort, the EASE!

For those of you who don’t wear them, contacts deteriorate with each wearing. I am supposed to change mine once a month, but with dust, eye makeup, and normal every day living, I don’t even make it three weeks before the need for new ones becomes overwhelming. And it’s shorter in pollen season! Dirty contacts hurt the eyes, compromise your eyesight, and are ineffective in their mission of correcting your vision.

Jesus has much to teach us about keeping our vision clear:

John 9 (The Message)

 1-2 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”

3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”

Jesus chose to heal the man’s blindness as a testimony to God’s power. But the townspeople and Pharisees refused to see what was right before their eyes. The tried to claim the man was never actually blind. They even interrogated his parents. The real issue?

Jesus had healed the blind man on the sabbath, breaking the law. The Pharisees felt it was their privilege and their position to sit in judgement and ignore the miracle in front of them. In their spiritual blindness, they couldn’t see Jesus for who he was. They judged him according to their rules, and found him to be inadequate.

Have you ever been guilty of judging someone?

The reaction of the Pharisees reminds us that being judgmental is akin to leaving dirty contacts in our eyes and then looking in the mirror and not seeing our own flaws. That is how the Pharisees see things…through the dirty lens of bias and entitlement.

39 Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

40 Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”

Be careful of your own lenses. God calls us see our brother in the same way that he looks upon us: with the lens of mercy, grace, equality, and acceptance. With that clarity, we will learn to love as God loves, and accept one another as he accepts us. Lord, open our eyes!

I can see clearly now…

No Time for Goodbye

Posted on by Betsy

A girl I love is a few months away from graduating from High School. We met a few weeks ago in the “before-time” at a local coffee shop and talked about colleges, scholarships, growing up, and life in general. The sun illuminated her strawberry blond hair as we sat at an outside table with not a care in the world. As I said, it was in The Before.

Now that we have arrived in The After, I can only see pictures of her on FaceBook. She just had her senior pictures taken. What I probably won’t get to see is her dressed in a cap and gown walking across the stage. I won’t see a hundred shots of her in her prom dress with her boyfriend in a matching tie. I won’t see beach pictures of her running in the waves on a rare day off from her summer restaurant job. And we had no time to say goodbye.

Teachers who miraculously scrambled to put their lessons online with one day‘s notice are just now allowing themselves to grieve the loss of being with their kids in person. Healthcare workers are having to quarantine themselves in their garages or at the hospital for fear of infecting their children at the end of work. My Alma Mater just announced that Spring Semester is over. The students moved out weeks ago, thinking they would be back after an extended Spring Break. Now it’s over, don’t come back. It was so unexpected, they had no time for goodbyes.

I miss my congregation so much it stings my eyes every time I think of them. I miss Miss Jean’s sweet bent-over hug. I miss Bonnie’s grin. I miss Jonny’s laughter. I MISS SINGING TOGETHER. God, I miss singing together. I miss them all. I didn’t know that the last time I saw them would be the last time I would see them. No time for goodbye.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus reminds us that we are blessed when we mourn:

Matthew 5 (The Message)

3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

5 “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

6 “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

When everything you know and love gets stripped away, there is God. For such a time as this, we were made to seek him out for comfort and companionship. Blessings WILL happen in The After.

7 “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

This is especially poignant for The After. Being stuck inside allows us to get our inside world put right.

9 “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

The After is a time of no goodbyes, but also a time of saying hello to a whole new set of blessings we never would have discovered in The Before. God is with us. We are with each other.

And the good news is, we are one day closer to the end of this thing. Thanks be to God.

One Day Closer by Wende Pritchard