Church Family Update - July 15, 2020

Yesterday Wyatt passed through the veil of this world and entered into eternity. Here are the words of the text from his mom, Nolene, “Wyatt peacefully passed away in Tim’s arms. He is in heaven now, safe in the arms of Jesus.” 

This has been a long journey for Tim and Nolene and the whole family. The journey is not over yet as they all continue to celebrate Wyatt’s short life and grieve his early passing. Please continue to be prayer for all those affected by this loss. 

Update on Coffee Tomorrow:

Once again it looks like the weather may not be conducive to sitting on the patio and having coffee tomorrow morning. Rather than cancelling now, I’ll just say that if it is not raining or blowing gale-force winds then I will be sitting on the patio and having coffee at 10:00 AM tomorrow morning (July 16th) and if the weather is not permitting then we’ll try again next week.

A Devotional Thought:

“Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)

The job of theologians is to give us answers. Theologians explain how it’s possible that God knows the future and yet we still have freewill. They explain how prayer can change things even though God is omnipotent and never changes His mind. They explain how it is that the 7th plague in Exodus (hail) killed all the Egyptian cattle and yet the 10th plague killed all the firstborn, even the firstborn cattle. How did those firstborn cattle get resurrected after the 7th plague? Ask the theologians, they’ll tell you!

Theologians also have ways of explaining how it is that a good and all-powerful God can allow suffering. I’ve got multiple books on my shelf, written by wise and godly people, that attempt to provide a biblical answer to that question. 

I’m thankful for faithful theologians who can help me make sense of the world and answer my deepest questions. But sometimes the answers alone aren’t enough. And sometimes even the most optimistic bible verses, though completely true, don’t provide the comfort we need when we’re hurting. 

If someone is grieving a loss, then smiling and reminding them that “All things work together for good” may feel more like rubbing salt in their wounds than providing comfort. Sometimes we don’t get answers to our questions. Sometimes we simply hit the wall of our finite limitations and we come face to face with the reality that God’s mind is not our mind and His ways are not our ways. 

Sometimes, instead of getting answers to our questions we get a God who cares and who walks alongside us in our pain and who weeps with us.  

I don’t have any way to make sense of pain and suffering apart from the tears of Christ and the cross of Christ. The incarnation reminds us that our God is a God who is not far off but who has entered into our pain and experienced it Himself. Jesus spent restless, sleepless nights crying out to God. He knew the pain of being betrayed by a friend. He felt the burn of public humiliation and mockery. And through it all he responded with love. 

On the cross, as He breathed His last, Jesus didn’t answer all of our questions. But He did give purpose, meaning, dignity and hope to our suffering and sadness. And through His death and resurrection He gave us a covenant promise that even though there’s suffering and painful goodbyes in this broken world, the darkness shall not overcome the light. And one day all will be well. 

Wyatt, rest in peace in the loving arms of your Savior. You were called home earlier than most and you are deeply loved by the family you left behind. Even as they mourn your passing, they look forward to seeing you again one day in a place where there will be no more tears, illness or painful departures.

May each one of you find peace, hope and joy today.

And may the Lord bless you and keep you.

Pastor Jason