Hope for today
The Lord replied (Joel 2:19)
In Green Leaf in Drought Isobel Kuhn describes the long-delayed escape of the last CIM missionaries from communist China. Just as the iron curtain is about to fall, Arthur and Wilda Mathews hear God's call to travel deep inside the mainland and respond. The book describes their life under the new regime and their attempts to leave. It appears throughout that the new communist authorities are determined to use them as an example of how badly their opponents will fare. The local governor attempts to starve them, to trap them into false accusations, to trick them into accepting lies and it would seem that their situation is hopeless. The book tells the story of how God keeps them safe. Secretly and in the most subtle of ways, he provides for their every need. In line with CIM policy they never ask for help, but it inevitably comes. The message the locals hear is that God can be trusted. Hardly what the authorities hoped. Then, finally, in a dramatic twist, they are given permission to leave. It is the moment when God replies in the most visible fashion.
This is the great hope and expectation of God's people, that he will reply. In the footnotes of my Bible it suggests the word can be translated will reply or replied. Remembering vaguely that Hebrew verbs did not have tenses in the same way as English ones, I looked this up. I was correct but after long minutes of trying to understand it, I decided I'd just trust the translators. The word can mean both will reply and has replied. And I wondered if this is significant. That we live in that moment where we both trust that God will reply and know that he has replied. That his gift is so certain that even before it has happened, it is fixed and in the past.
As we move into a sixth or is it seventh week of lockdown, people are starting to talk of the lifting of restrictions, of a few year-groups going back to school, of some work places and shops reopening, of a different but less restrictive set of controls, I wonder how much we are about to live in that liminal place, neither future nor past. We have a word for that. It's called the present. It's the place where each day we trust to God's reply, for today. Strength for today, hope for today, with our great certainty not in our own strength but in that great promise, that yesterday, today and forever Jesus is the same, the one who answers our prayers.
Arthur and Wilda Mathews are an example of trusting each day and seeing God answer each need. As we move into a time of yet further uncertainty, I wonder how far we are able to follow their example.
In Green Leaf in Drought Isobel Kuhn describes the long-delayed escape of the last CIM missionaries from communist China. Just as the iron curtain is about to fall, Arthur and Wilda Mathews hear God's call to travel deep inside the mainland and respond. The book describes their life under the new regime and their attempts to leave. It appears throughout that the new communist authorities are determined to use them as an example of how badly their opponents will fare. The local governor attempts to starve them, to trap them into false accusations, to trick them into accepting lies and it would seem that their situation is hopeless. The book tells the story of how God keeps them safe. Secretly and in the most subtle of ways, he provides for their every need. In line with CIM policy they never ask for help, but it inevitably comes. The message the locals hear is that God can be trusted. Hardly what the authorities hoped. Then, finally, in a dramatic twist, they are given permission to leave. It is the moment when God replies in the most visible fashion.
This is the great hope and expectation of God's people, that he will reply. In the footnotes of my Bible it suggests the word can be translated will reply or replied. Remembering vaguely that Hebrew verbs did not have tenses in the same way as English ones, I looked this up. I was correct but after long minutes of trying to understand it, I decided I'd just trust the translators. The word can mean both will reply and has replied. And I wondered if this is significant. That we live in that moment where we both trust that God will reply and know that he has replied. That his gift is so certain that even before it has happened, it is fixed and in the past.
As we move into a sixth or is it seventh week of lockdown, people are starting to talk of the lifting of restrictions, of a few year-groups going back to school, of some work places and shops reopening, of a different but less restrictive set of controls, I wonder how much we are about to live in that liminal place, neither future nor past. We have a word for that. It's called the present. It's the place where each day we trust to God's reply, for today. Strength for today, hope for today, with our great certainty not in our own strength but in that great promise, that yesterday, today and forever Jesus is the same, the one who answers our prayers.
Arthur and Wilda Mathews are an example of trusting each day and seeing God answer each need. As we move into a time of yet further uncertainty, I wonder how far we are able to follow their example.
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That was so true. Thank you George?
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