Pastor Amy's Thursday Thoughts

This past Sunday I preached on Acts 1:1-12, which included the story of Jesus ascending to heaven and leaving the disciples staring at the sky in his wake. This group of ragtag followers had been through a lot of really life defining moments in the three years or so as they had traveled with Jesus.

I’m not surprised the disciples stood and stared up at the sky - I imagine they were frozen with a “not again” kind of shock (after all, Jesus had just been killed and resurrected). I wonder if in that moment they felt the coalescence of what was and what might be, knowing that all they had lived through would forever shape them.

I remember feeling this “caught in the middle” the day I boarded the airplane to India to meet my daughter - coupled with the distinct feeling that everything was moving way too fast. I wanted to hold on to that moment, but it felt like it slipped through my fingers like water. I knew that what was and what might be were meeting in those hours as I traveled from Seattle to Chennai. I was standing on a threshold and once I stepped over my life would never go back to the what was.

We all have thresholds - moments that move too fast or too slow but mark a definitive moment that we can’t go back from, even if we don’t quite know how to move forward. Moments that we look back on as hugely monumental for setting a new course for us.

In the Hebrew Scripture book of Deuteronomy we find Israel at another threshold - about to cross into the Promised Land after their years of wandering. Moses stands there with them looking out over the promise. Knowing he won’t be making this next part of the journey with them, he gives them this encouragement: “Be strong and bold; have no fear…because it is the LORD your God who goes with you; God will not fail you or forsake you” (Deut. 31:6).

Friends, whatever threshold you find yourself standing at remember this: God is with you. God was with you in what was and God will be with you in what will be. And God is with you in the threshold moment. And when that moment slips through your hands like water, it is only because God’s love flows over us like a never ending stream.

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

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