Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Beauty and Blessings
Nehemiah 13:2
They did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.
2 Corinthians 5:19
In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
Words of Grace For Today
Ah, the plans and schemes of mice and men … and women and … well, all the plans of pretty much all of us.
They just are not anything like God’s plans for us before creation, and for every day of our lives.
We try hard to make life on our own, and our enemies try hard to undo our plans with their plans.
Thankfully God’s plans prevail.
God turns our enemies efforts to curse us into blessings for us.
God turns our many trespasses into renewed life, by the work of Jesus who reconciles the whole world (even us) to himself.
Of course, each day, we still need bread and water … and every once and a while we need something a bit more nutritious, and every day we need something to feed the rest of us.
More than food, we need to have our souls fed and nourished.
We need to be nourished so that even in the darkest darkness of life we can remember the work that Christ has completed for us, the work of reconciling us to God.
No matter what happens, God always has work for us, carrying the message of Christ’ reconciliation to all whom we meet.
Busy with that work we can surrender our plans so that we can fit into God’s plan for us, and all God’s people, and all of creation.
Nice as it is to try to work our own way forward, there is no better life than to spread God’s reconciliation wherever we go, however we go, no matter what challenges we face.