Cheryl's Reflections

Often in life a very exquisite and precious reality is hidden behind a common and inconspicuous façade.   A luminous pearl hidden inside a soft mollusk.  A smooth pecan hidden inside a tough shell.  A human life hidden inside a mother’s swollen belly.  And so it is with the church.  Here we gather this morning.  We are so ordinary.  So very ordinary.   Nothing seemingly extraordinary about us.  But if we look deeper, we find more.  So, so much more.

We find a battle.  A battle that has been waged since the beginning of time.  A battle for souls.  Souls separated from the loving arms of the Father by sin.  Souls that have succumbed to the hideous evil of our Great Adversary.  He drives us into dark places of isolation where he whispers lies with his raspy, distorted voice.  And we fight back.  We see the lonely 13 year old girl, vulnerable to the Facebook lies – and love her through a week of wild joy at Survivor.  We see the frightened 7 year old boy in Sabana Cruz – his father has succumbed to alcohol and he doesn’t know how to protect his mother.  We see the confused mother from India, overwhelmed in a new culture with her preschooler.  We see the 10 year old boy whose father is leaving and whose parents are divorcing and whose world is crumbling.  And we bounce basketballs and offer another father’s arms.   We love them and try to squelch the lies from the Evil Voice and speak truth into their souls.  We do battle.  One day at a time.  One life at a time.

If we look deeper we find a battle.  And we find a home.  A beautiful, safe home.  It is a home built not with wood beams and common nails.  It is a home built with truth and grace and mercy and kindness and gentleness and forgiveness.  We see the rafters being lifted in quiet corners  –  in hundreds of heads bowed low over that beautiful book on Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening and Thursday evening and Saturday morning and Sunday morning;  in hands clasped together in the prayer room, calling to the Father for strength in a trial too great to bear alone; in the ring of the doorbell and the heart-strengthening love of a fresh meal to a weary family;  in the hospital room, where the reading voice of my Pastor steadies my frightened heart.

If we look deeper, we find a battle.  We find a home.  And we find love.  Our love for our Sovereign Father.  Our love for our Victorious Savior.  Our love for our Powerful Counselor.  And more than all, we find His astonishing love for us.

[on the occasion of Peter & Cheryl's 10th anniversary at Goshen]