As I write this meditation, we are awaiting the results of our national and local elections. There seems to be a general air of anxiety and wondering about what comes next. Sometimes we sit here in the middle and look back and things seem so much simpler in the past. Sometimes we sit here and wish that we could jump to the future and rest in some assuredness that things will be okay. I imagine that that is how many of us feel in this betwixt and between time in our National life.
For me, it is an occasion to look beyond these temporally life and to the God on whom all creation is upheld. Years ago when I was attempting to sort out things that I should keep and things that I should discard, my friend asked, “In five years, will it make a difference?”
That, I believe, is how God must see things: not in the passion of this immediate moment, not in how it must be decided on this day, but how God challenges us to see things – yes, holding to the integrity of making good and faithful choices – but also in five years, will this be important?
I attempt to hold on to that hope, that promise of our faithful God. That hope is that, indeed, God is working God’s purpose out. While I may not be able to understand or see God’s will right now, the hope and promise are that God is with us each and every moment of our lives and that even though our eyes may not be able to behold how these moments fit, our faith grants us the confidence to trust that we are beloved parts of God’s plan. In these betwixt and between times, it is in that hope that we rejoice and give thanks.
Faithfully,
The Rev. Sarah Nelson