Sunday, on the last day of vacation, I drove from Knoxville to Rock Hill. I stopped around noon at the North Carolina welcome center in Pisgah National Forest. I had brought along my favorite devotional books for a time of quiet meditation and worship. I asked a nice couple to snap this photo of Bell, Zoe and myself.
What a lovely site to be reminded of the grandeur and glory of God! This is the God who delights in us and wants us to be in complete harmony with each other and with him.
A vacation is a gift. Just like Lent, a vacation can bring us rest and healing and renewal. I used those moments in the mountains to remember that God is greater than any challenge facing me or my church. If I did not pause to reconnect with my Creator, what a mess I would be in. Use each moment, each relationship to help you be remade by God: refreshed, renewed, set right.
When I was a child, many of the old revival hymns had the theme of renewal. I remember being fascinated by the image of being made “whiter that snow”. What a wonderful image that was for my young imagination.
I also remembered being confused and somewhat repulsed by the image of” being washed in the blood of Jesus”. As an adult, that image no longer repulses me but speaks volumes about the depth of God’s love for each of us and the lengths our creator was willing to go to save even you and me! As we move toward Holy week and contemplate the crucifixion, let your life be renewed by the cross’ transforming love.
Pastor Pam