Friday, September 17, 2021
The Night Before
The Storm
…
Provides Promises of Blessings
To Come
Psalm 103:22
Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Luke 13:29
Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.
Words of Grace For Today
Cold autumn rains fell, ferocious through the night, and then steady with only a light wind pushing them across the horizon. Still the winds, with wet furry, had torn apart Tina’s camp.
It took the morning to patch up most of the damage, and set her mind busy with plans, imagined and then reworked and reworked, to brunt the blast of damaging winds. Ideal would be a solid wall, though that was not possible. Perhaps some kind of wall made of the available recycled items collected in the past summer from garbage which she was allowed to pick and choose from.
There was no protection possible from the ferocious winds of false rumours that people used as excuses to ignore, deprive, and outright attack her. There was no wall to be built. Only God’s grace kept her safe, protected, alive, and filled with awe and hope.
There are works of humans that are impressive in their majesty, though where humans excel is in their ability to destroy each other. Arnold had tapped into this method of getting ahead when he was still young, informing on his family to the secret police. It had brought him apparent success even as he watched his family disintegrate before his teenage eyes. He’d gone on to become a multimillionaire on the backs of many people. Tina was only one of many left in his wake of destruction. The police had used this corrupt power to bring false charges against Tina. The courts had used this power of destruction to falsely convicting her. It seemed as if there would be no end. But their destructive power, if not already, soon will come full circle to rest in their lives again and again, leaving them each and all desperate for relief, for rescue, and for salvation. Only God knows if they will be brought to an end by their own destruction, or whether God will redeem them and claim them as saints. So it is will all who use the destructive power at which humans excel so well to construct their lives of deceit and greed.
God’s kingdom is constructed differently, without the need for walls to protect oneself from the ugly blasts of destructive deceptions and schemes to gain advantage at other’s cost. God’s kingdom is built on God’s works of mercy, steadfast love, and wonder. There are no words, actions, or direct assaults which can diminish God’s works. God’s mercy is forever, God’s steadfast love is unfailing, and God’s wonders are unassailable and omnipresent.
Here people from all lands, east, west, north, and south gather together to feast under God’s protection that cannot be compromised. Together they give testimonies, true and wondrous, of God’s great works through which God has blessed all people.
Cold autumn rains fell, ferocious through the night, and then steady with only a light wind pushing them across the horizon. Nothing in God’s kingdom was changed one iota, and Tina feasted in solitude with the hermit saints of all times, with the people of the earth from all places and all times. As God blessed Tina, and all the saints of all time, together with Tina they all blessed God with thanks.
For all that is, comes from God, and all is well, all is well, all manner of things are well.