by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Waiting for the Promise

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

I don’t know what happened here in this picture, but I can guess. There is a high probability that a forest fire ravaged the land. Aspen are often one of the first plants to grow following a fire. But you will notice something else. Pine trees are beginning their ascent in the midst of the aspen.

I will not be around to see it, but the day is coming when the pine trees will take over for the aspen. I can picture it’s future without living to see it.

We live in the present knowing our past with hope for the future. That’s what the Christian community embraces.

Our past might not be so pretty.  There have been times when our lives have been scorched by a “forest fire”, when we’ve been burned by the ugly presence of sin in our lives and in the world.

However, today we live in the reality of grace. God has poured his love over us and into us to bring us back to life. Through Jesus we have experienced God’s kindness beyond measure. In Jesus there is forgiveness that changes the landscape of our lives. We still see the remnants of the past, but the power of grace is stronger than our sin and failures.

Yet we know that there is more coming. Though we are drenched in mercy, we still live with the promise that the “pine trees” will take over, that God will create a new heaven and a new earth. At the table of our Lord we get a taste of that day, but we’re not there yet.

In our waiting, we hear the words of Jesus in his revelation to the Apostle John;

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” 
Revelation 1:8 English Standard Version

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