God's Hand

John 3 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. ² After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

 ³ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

 ⁴ “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

 ⁵ Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 

 

I've started a new walking program. I'm on my second week, and I'm still walking! That's amazing for me. As I was walking today, I noticed trees beginning to show their bright green new leaves. The flowering trees are about to be in full bloom. It seems like overnight, the world went from nothing but sticks for trees and dead lawns to budding, flowering beauty. I walk by them each day and watch them change.

I thought as I walked today, that the seasons are really a good metaphor for our spiritual journey. No matter how deeply we are into the winter of life, with its cold unfeeling wasteland surrounding us, God can bring about a resurrection of the soul, a rebirth, just as surely as he brings the spring after the winter. 

The words "born again " have been misused, overused and sometimes abused by Christians through the years. To Nicodemus, they are totally foreign. He has no concept of what born again might mean. He takes it literally, and just cannot wrap his brain around that concept!

Jesus then gives the interpretation for Nick: "No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.

Every day when we awake, we make a choice whether or not to enter the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of this world. We choose whether or not we will remember our baptismal vows to resist evil in all forms, to study the scriptures, and many other things that will lead us into Kingdom living. We choose whether or not we will walk in the power of the Spirit, or neglect our daily contact with God. I find myself having to daily be born again into the newness of life that Jesus offers us through grace. I come home at the end of the day covered in my sins from past few hours, and I go to God again to "know that I know that I know deep down in my knower" that I am forgiven. I go to bed with a (fairly) clean slate, knowing tomorrow I begin again. Each day offers us rebirth and renewal.

So, I'm going to watch as the trees go from budding in spring,to full foliage in summer, to colors in the fall, to seeming death in the winter, and remember that God is with me through all the seasons of my life.

Children Keep Us On Our Toes

I read a story each Wednesday to the children in our Weekday Children's Ministry. It's one of the highlights of my week! The children come from all sorts of backgrounds and home lives. I don't know if they are Christian families or not (except for the ones that go to my church).
On this particular day, I was telling the children about National Library Week. We talked about all kinds of books: books of information, like dictionaries; books with directions in them, like cookbooks; books with maps; books with nothing but pictures; books just for fun.
Then I held up the Bible. I told them it was a very special book with lots of stories and interesting characters. I told them it teaches us the way to live in peace with one another and with the world. Then I read the story The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. That's when it happened. As I was explaining that God's love follows us around just like the mother bunny followed the baby bunny, and that God would never leave us because we are his children. A hand went up in the back. "What does Jesus do?" he asked.
I was caught completely off-guard. I had to think for a minute. How do you explain to a three-year-old what Jesus does? The fact that he died for our sins is pretty difficult to explain. So, I went with the basics. I told him that, just like God, Jesus loves us very much. And since he is the son of God, we are all his brothers and sisters, if we believe in him and have faith in God. I told them He set an example of how we are to live and told us to love everyone, no matter who they are.
How do you answer a question like that? What DOES Jesus DO? I'm still working on a better answer for the young boy. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. How does that translate into three-year-old concrete understanding level? I remembered something my father told me all the time growing  up. "Just always remember to keep the main thing the main thing."
So I taught them about the love of God being so big that He sent his son to share that love with us. Jesus loves us and teaches us to love God and each other. The main thing is: Jesus loves you. God loves you. And I love you. That's all we really need to know about what Jesus does. He loves. Yes, there is much more to learn in our daily walk with our Savior. Yet Christ himself said the greatest commandment is to love God with all our being and the second greatest is to love others as we love ourselves. I hope the children went away knowing that God, Jesus and Pastor Caren love them. I wonder what question they'll ask next.........