We’ve been blessed with beautiful flowering plants on our back patio thanks to a dear friend who surprise flower-bombed us while we were on our trip to Israel. She just has a knack of taking the sad, barely alive flowers from discount bins, sticking them in a pot with soil, water and apparently some sort of pixie dust, because everything she pots seems to take on new life and thrive! With the warmer weather we’ve been having, there are new buds it seems every day to join the wide open flowers full of life and color that makes us so appreciate our patio garden!
But all too soon the sun will be too much for spring flowers and we’ll be exchanging them for still beautiful, but heartier, heat friendly varieties. This special time between winter and summer doesn’t last very long around here, so I guess that makes spring sort of an in-between time. And that has me thinking….
So much of our lives are lived in the in-between. It feels like that right now, doesn’t it? There’s just so much that isn’t what it was….but it’s also not what it will be. We’re in the in-between…and it’s hard.
Jesus and his disciples were getting ready to travel to Jerusalem for the Passover when Jesus told them for the third time what was going to happen to him there. Matthew’s gospel puts it like this:
“Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” Matt. 20:17-19
This always just amazes me….Jesus told them what they were walking into – not in parabolic imagery that left them wondering what he meant, but in very clear, straight-forward language. He deliberately called them aside, looked them in the eyes and told them for the third time of the brutality that awaited him, along with the good news that he would be raised on the third day, and still they didn’t get it…
If anyone knows what it’s like to live in the in-between it’s Jesus. The life as he had lived it for over 30 years was nearly over and he knew what he was going to have to go through to step into a new one. In just a couple of days he will be received by a cheering crowd with shouts of “Hosanna!” knowing full well that these same voices would very soon be chanting for his crucifixion. And I don’t know how he kept going during those days…how he kept doing the next thing. It had to have been so, so very hard!
God knows we’re struggling through our own “in-between” right now. And even as we are taking a hard pause from our “normal” lives, God hasn’t stopped moving among us – He knows every name and hears every prayer and He is not going to let us fall. The God who created the very seasons we live by knows that this season will pass. The glory of Easter isn’t confined to church walls or home isolation, and whatever things may look like at the end of this season, we can be sure there will still be beauty and new life.
So, maybe for today the best thing we can do about all of the things we can’t do ….is to do our best to trust God in the in-between, and look to the beauty that is all around us as a reminder that new life abounds. It’s the ultimate promise of Easter – and Easter’s just around the corner!
Much Love,
Shellie ♥
Unstoppable God
Sanctus Real
I wish I knew when this mountain in my way is gonna move
I hope it’s ok to tell the truth
Sometimes the doubt starts to win
Yeah, I’d be lying if I told you I was anything but weak
Right now my struggle is all I see
But I’m not giving in
My story will not end in defeat
Cause nothing can stop an unstoppable God
He’s not afraid of impossible odds
This is the promise that I’m standing on
Nothing can stop an unstoppable God
This is the promise that I’m standing on
Nothing can stop an unstoppable God
I will not listen to the lie that says it can’t be done
I know my war is already won
And I’m claiming victory
Cause I know who’s fighting for me
Nothing can stop an unstoppable God
He’s not afraid of impossible odds
This is the promise that I’m standing on
Nothing can stop an unstoppable God
This is the promise that I’m standing on
Nothing can stop an unstoppable God
Where does my help come from
Where does my help come from
My help comes from the Lord
Where does my help come from
Where does my help come from
My help comes from the Lord
Nothing can stop an unstoppable God
He’s not afraid of impossible odds
This is the promise that I’m standing on
Nothing can stop an unstoppable God
This is the promise that I’m standing on
Nothing can stop an unstoppable God
Where does my help come from
Where does my help come from
My help comes from the Lord
Amen..