Isaiah 55:10-11, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return empty to me, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Now if that’s not the most beautiful, eloquent run-on sentence out there, I don’t know what is!

Water and rain are on my mind today as my Facebook feed is filled with people’s concerns over flooding basements and washed out streets.  Before I go any further into this blog entry, I want to say to all of you who are struggling with keeping water under control, you are in the thoughts and prayers of the pastoral staff at Winnetka Covenant Church.

Floods are an unstoppable force of nature; many of us know that far too well today.  These verses from the book of Isaiah remind us that water has a purpose & it does not go away until that purpose has been achieved.

The same can be said about our God.  Our Creator is relentless in pursuing us- diligent until the mission is accomplished.  It might not occur in the way that we are hoping or anticipating, but we believe that God will reconcile all of Creation in time.

Recently, I read about that time feels longer/slower when we are learning new things.  We are aware of so many details that need to be understood and we cannot go into “cruise control” through our own lives.  That is why the month of March felt so long for so many people because each day contained new elements of life to learn.

Time might feel like it is going slow right now, which can lead to us desiring even more for God to make everything right in the world and achieve the purpose of what our Savior set out to do.

With all that being said, my prayer for each of us today, wherever we are at mentally and whatever circumstances we are navigating today, is that we could have a quiet moment with our Lord to remember that God is achieving something during this time that is far beyond our understanding in the moment.  God has a purpose and we trust that purpose will be achieved, no matter what.  Through the good and the bad, we remain people of hope and faith, that Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead and we are brought to new life through Him.  Amen.

-Pastor Joel

May the Lord, mighty God,
bless and keep you forever;
grant you peace, perfect peace,
courage in every endeavor.

Lift up your eyes and see His face,
and His grace forever;
may the Lord, mighty God,
bless and keep you forever.

These words are sung at the end of every Refuel gathering we have at church on Wednesday nights- a time that I so deeply miss & grieve in this season.  They are used as a Benediction that we sing to each other as we go forward from our time together.

These words unite us.  They connect us.  Not only to those at Winnetka Covenant Church but countless other people who have sung these same exact words to the same exact tune of “Edelweiss” for years.  I have sung this tune at more church services & weeks of camp that I can remember.

I, personally have looked into the eyes of people that have never probably even heard of Winnetka Covenant Church, and we have held strong to this message.

Likewise, you probably have had these words sung to you by people I have never met, nor ever will meet.

We are rooted together in the history of Saints to people we know nothing of, but we have sung the same words to the same tune, time and time again.  And this is just one song, one that’s not even that old.  Think about how the Holy Scriptures unite us; how the Holy Spirit unites us!

So in this time of shelter in place, where the number of people we see might be less than before.  In this time where we as a church body don’t gather on Wednesday night and sing these words to each other every week.  I hope we all can remember how vast, how large, the Body of Christ is.    And how we are in this together.

May the Lord, mighty God,
bless and keep you forever;
grant you peace, perfect peace,
courage in every endeavor.

Lift up your eyes and see His face,
and His grace forever;
may the Lord, mighty God,
bless and keep you forever.