GREETING HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,
for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3
I have enjoyed walking around the church and hiding the tiny Jesuses and even better to see our children searching for them and wondering if they should take the ones that have been taped to the door to remind us that Jesus is the door/gate and we are the gatekeeper.
I hope we know when the shepherd arrives so we can open the gate and welcome the shepherd and the sheep. I hope we can recognize Jesus laying down protecting the sheepfold from thieves and predatory animals. I hope we learn from the healed blind man of John 9, how to welcome what Jesus is doing among us.
Tiny Jesus Shows up at Keystone Communion
Not only at church do I find the tiny Jesuses, but I also get to see him on the emergency pull of my garage door and Keystone as well as resting in the bottom of my purse. At CTK, one of our kids enjoys finding and hiding them again and another went home with a pocketful and I hope he keeps hiding them to remind ourselves that our lives are hidden with Christ and how wonderful it is to discover and recognize the risen Christ in our lives. I hope you are searching and looking for Jesus to show up.
This Sunday we will hear from 1 Peter 3:13-22 and be encouraged to “always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.” (v.15b) I don’t know if anyone is demanding to know the hope that is within us but I do hope we are ready to share our hope with gentleness and respect to any who wants to hear. And I hope we practice with each other, sharing how Christ brings us hope. Not just the hope of everlasting life with Jesus as wonderful as that is but also the hope that comes with trusting the incarnation, the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. Jesus has gone full circle so that we can fully encircle our lives with his.
Isn’t it amazing the lengths that God goes through to invite and walk with us to show us the way so that we can live the way of God. That gives me hope. This Easter season we have been given such powerful images to discover our lives hidden with Christ. Not only is Jesus the door/gate but also the good shepherd and the way, the truth and the life- the way that leads to truth and life. Jesus reminds us to not let our hearts be troubled but to believe in God and in Jesus. He tells us that he will not leave us orphaned and will give us the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit.
God is so faithful and generous as shown to us through Jesus and all the places he shows up. Even though we may not recognize him at first, like many of the first to witness the resurrection, Jesus continues to call our name and breathe his peace into us.
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving
Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
