E-votional - It All Came Together
March 27, 2002
Verse:

"And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts."

Luke 23:48 (NRSV)

Thought:

   More often than not, we see the beginning, the middle or the end. The beginning looks like nothing more than a dream. The middle, well it surely looks like a mess. And the end, well, it looks like a piece of work, a master piece. In High School, I had an old Plymouth Barracuda. We sent it to the shop to have some body work and get painted. When we sent it, it was in "okay" shape, but I knew it need work. The shop was a bike ride away, so on occasion I would ride my bike up there or take another car up there. Day after day it began to look worse and worse. Paint off here, bare metal there, paint dust everywhere. I began to worry that the picture they had painted in my head was nothing more than a fantasy. The middle was filled with some dishonest practice, scandal and reorganization of the shop. Everything looked to be a mess, until the end.

   Hear the Good News, Jesus' birth, filled with such promise, his life, filled with even more than promise, but potential realized, only to be met with the cross had to fill the most hopeful with despair. Yet that was not the end, it was only the middle too. Often we see the middle as the end, and this is where we fall, not fail, but fall. Allow God to pick us up and to focus on the dream, the promise of Christ and we will never lose sight of our life and our calling. Dreams and visions, when we are focused on God, they are gifts from God. make it to the end and be blessed.

Prayer: 

   Gracious God, so often I give up too early. Give me endurance and faith to make it to the true end, not to the end that I might see. Thank You. Let others be able to comprehend my love for them and Your love for them. Thank You for all that You have done in my life and all You will continue to do, for ask this through Christ, my Lord and Savior. Amen.