So we have some friends whose marriage appears to be over. We have prayed with them and prayed for them. We have counseled them. We have cried with them. We have hoped for them. And now we are surprised by whom they are turning out to be. All of it serves to remind me that we just aren't home yet. God, I wish we were back.
Still, it's Reformation Day. It's the day that we remember that the Word of God is for all of us. It's also the day (thanks, Dad) that we remember that the Word of God is life transforming and should never be taken lightly. And it's the day that I am reminded that the Church's one foundation, and MY one foundation, is Jesus Christ. No matter what.
Though with a scornful wonder
we see her sore oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping;
their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song.
Mid toil and tribulation,
and tumult of her war,
she waits the consummation
of peace forevermore;
'til, with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blest,
and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest.
(The Church's One Foundation, Samuel Stone)
We sang these words in church this morning, and it made me weep with the beauty and the promise of it all. We aren't home yet, but we will be one day soon. And in that day where there is no more night and no more pain and no more divorce, we, the church victorious, shall finally be the church at rest.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
2 comments:
Amen.
I'm truly sorry about your friends. I don't know what it is about dissolving marriages these days but it's a horrible things to watch from the outside. As horrible as it seems just remember that there is hope. Your family is a testimony of the power of that hope.
And like it says in the Jesus Story Book Bible,
"Well, in another story, it would all be over and that would have been THE END.
But not in this Story."
Missed you guys yesterday.
Love that song. That's the only for sure in my funeral; well, other than that I'll be there, sort of. :-)
Probably that will go on my tombstone, too. "The night of weeping will be the morn of song." Maybe Chris Rice's "The praises won't end; I won't be silenced by the grave."
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