Summer is passing and Fall is dawning, another one of God’s marvelous waxing and waning events every year. Fall seems to stoke in me a sense of gratitude. Not sure why. It just naturally does. I wonder if there is a creational rhythm built into the cycle of plowing, sowing, growing, and reaping. Fall is known for its harvest festivals. A time of thanksgiving for the harvest. Thanksgiving for the full storehouses of what God has provided. Thanksgiving as we remember family and friends who we worked beside through this beautiful cycle God has given. Did it involve labor, toil, sweat, time and energy? Sure. Yet now, we experience the fruit.
I’m excited to make our move from Genesis to Exodus as God’s story of redemption unfolds. In Exodus, we see God hearing the cries of his people, raising up a deliverer, and leading them out of bondage. God creates, redeems, and calls a people to himself, to be his people. It’s really God’s story from beginning to the end of history as we know it. In Exodus, we find God revealed as ‘compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.’ (Exodus 34:6). This too, is God revealed from the beginning to the end of history as we know it. Today, it’s good to find ourselves in God’s story. Where are we? Where am I? Where are you?
See you Sunday,
Pastor Mark