Epistle / Based on Romans 8:24-25 / Emailed to UMC Hudson WI on July 17, 2020

Darci here.  I had signed up to write to you today, Friday, July 17, well before my world was shaken.  Then on Wednesday, my Mom died unexpectedly.  Yesterday my husband, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease entered hospice. 

I had been lax at reading the daily epistles but went through them and saw the faces of our youth being shown.  This Sunday is confirmation. We will welcome three youth into full membership.  They have been guided and taught. Now they are confirming their desire to step into the commitments of the confirmation liturgy. I will not be in the car parade waving and getting a frozen treat, but I will be praying for them. 

The Disciplines reading for today was out of Romans.  I realize the “sufferings” Paul was writing about had to do with being persecuted for following Christ instead of a suffering from normal life.  Yet it feels personal to me as I feel the pain of loss.  As I read Paul’s words, I am reminded of the hope for a future with God that is yet to be revealed.

Romans 8:24-25

For in this home we were saved.  But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

My parent's love is not lost.  Only their faces beside me are gone.  Their loving spirits are joined with God.  I can tap into that love now.  I am a believer that my eternity with God has already begun.  Yet part of that fullness is not yet.  It is what I am patiently waiting for.

My son, Paul, and his family are currently living with me.  They sold their home and their new home is not theirs until the end of August.  They are patiently waiting and moving between “Grandma’s Houses” until the time they can begin their new life in a new town and neighborhood.  It is another time of waiting and hoping for a future they are imagining but cannot live in quite yet.

Many of us are waiting for science and medicine to create protections to let our world feel more normal.  We wait and we hope for many things.  Your areas of waiting may include many more things.

It is not in today’s lesson, but I happen to pull an older Bible off my shelf that had verses highlighted.  My eyes went to verse 38 of this chapter.

Romans 8:38

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Many of you are praying for me.  I feel those prayers.  Beyond that, I feel God flowing his strength into me.  It is there if we open to it.  It is always there.  It is not something we need to wait for some future to feel.  We need to accept it and open to it, but we do not need to ask for it.  Nothing can separate us from that love.

I pray for you, my church family, as you pray for me.  I pray blessings on the step these youth are taking this Sunday and embrace them as fellow siblings on this journey of growing as children of God.  Keep the faith.  Live in hope.  Open yourselves to feel that flow of love from God.

Beams and blessings to you each.