Hi, friends. As we begin 2021, I feel this on my heart to say. The year may already seem hopeless or painful or uncomfortable. Maybe you are trying to be optimistic, but don’t see anything tangible to back up your hopes. However you already feel about this year, I want to say that our first impressions often tell us who we are rather than who God is.
I can’t tell you how often my first impression is fear. How often I flinch, preparing for the bumpy road ahead. I don’t want to deny that pain or the possibility thereof. However, that indicates my struggles and my limitations–not who God is, His grandeur, His design, His ability to descend into misery alongside of us. I realize that what I fear the most is not feeling like God will actively be there like I want Him too. I’m right. He might not. He’s different than I am. He’s not afraid of the unconventional or the seemingly contradictory. He’s not afraid.
Sometimes that makes Him impossible. But nothing is impossible for Him.
I believe that beyond those moments of confusion and seeming abandonment, God always comes in times when it doesn’t possibly feel like He could be around. When we can’t feel the high of the Resurrection life, the depths of the cross comfort us. In such a strange divine sacrifice, Jesus transforms the terrifying mystery of suffering into a comfort; we may not even know what we must surmount in dark times, but God Incarnate Himself promises to never fail. We take hope that this is the ending: the cross will lead to the Resurrection. No matter the turmoil we encounter, no matter what God takes us through instead of taking us around, no matter the agony of crucifixion, we will end up on the other side. We will be with Him forever.
By consenting to Jesus’ involvement, we will be saved. His love will never fail.
Before I end, I want you to know that whoever you are, the Resurrection is meant for you. If you want it, God will joyously give you all He has through His Son Jesus’ death and resurrection. The world may be frightening. But it is not the end. Only Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Let’s walk together into His infinity.
“He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:10-11
Michelle E. Chin 