Our Never Failing Good Shepherd
Grace and peace be with you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In a conversation with John Pitts, he shared an idea to offer front yard, socially distanced, meet ups. It would give us a chance to see your wonderful (and masked) faces. I could hear a desire to see you in John’s voice and felt my heart jump as I imagined this possibility. I think his idea came out of our hope to see you as much as our desire to be there for you. In saying so, I am reminded of our Good Shepherd who seeks out the one lost and lonely sheep. Our desire for connection is rooted in the relational image of the one who created us. God not only desires to care for us, but also desires to be with us.
Rooted in our loving God, our clergy and staff teams have been touching base regularly to pray and think about ways that we can care for you in this time. We continue to pray for you by name daily and our staff is attempting to reach out to you by phone. I’ve even had the chance to pray with some of you at your home as you leave to go to the hospital for surgery. We want to be here for you, so please let us know if you need anything. Especially let us know if you are sick so we can connect with you.
Korey and I have enjoyed seeing many of you on our Thursday afternoon zoom calls open to everyone. I love seeing you comment on our services on Sunday mornings. When this all began, we thought it would last a few weeks, and as we see an ever-expanding time horizon, I want you to know that we are here for you. Maybe at first you didn’t think you needed to join an online small group because we didn’t know the length of our social isolation. Or maybe you wish you would have signed up for a check in buddy. It is not too late. It is important that we do all we can to stay connected until we can come back together.
In all of this, the most important thing for you to hear is that God is with you. Through Jesus we know that God has done everything to ensure that we will ultimately be ok and can never be separated from Him. When we come out on the other side of this, we will rejoice to know that in the fullness of God’s time all will be well and made whole. So, please be encouraged by our prayers for you, let us know if we can see you from across the yard, and let us know if you need anything.