God’s mercy is boundless, and His timing is both indestructible and perfect.  Over my life, there have been times when I had needs and desires that seemed to go unmet by God for long stretches of time.  In high school, I always felt like an outsider. I never really found a place or a group that I felt comfortable with, but when I went to Church Camp my sophomore year, I found my people, and that continued in college.  That experience made me tenderhearted to the outsider and influenced me to accept my call to ministry. 

Time and again in my personal and professional life, I have walked through valleys where I despaired only to have the right person, the right situation, and the right opportunity appear in God’s perfect timing.  It is so easy in those moments of despair to feel as if God has abandoned us to the situation that we are in. Basically, we lose hope!  However, I believe God is preparing to bless us with opportunities, relationships, and situations beyond our wildest dreams. 

Ephesians 3:20-21 puts it this way: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen”.

Now, as we approach Christmas, which is coming quickly, think about the blessing that God provided in Jesus Christ; in Him and Him alone resides all the hope of the ages.  Many missed it even though God sent Jesus to all people through God’s chosen people Israel.  Not because they weren’t looking, but because they did not expect that God would or could bless them in ways that did not fit their vision of how God should bless them. 

You see, the blessings of God come in His time, and in His way, often after a time of difficulty, and though He blesses us deeply, we often miss the blessing because we want God to bless us when and how we desire.  This is why God’s own people did not and still do not recognize Jesus for who He was … the savior of the world.  I mean, who would expect God to send His son to an unwed mother in a backwater town in a backwater country?  And then to allow him to die at the hands of His own people with the help of a foreign empire.  And yet this is how God has redeemed all of humankind and given those who believe in Him an abundance of Hope that the world cannot extinguish. 

So, if you are walking through the valley of despair, have hope … for God, whose love defines ABUNDANCE is ready to bless you IMMEASURABLY more than you can ask or imagine. 

Merry Christmas,

Pastor Burt