Prayer:
Eternal God, draw us always through the darkness and shadows of this age toward the new creation promised to us in your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Bible Reading:
Romans 8:18-25
Silence:
One to two minutes
Reflection:
Hardly a day goes by that the headline or the news flash does not present still another picture of violence and decay. If it is not a high school campus with kids fleeing for their lives, then it the statistics of HIV infections in the African continent. And if not in the news, then just a glance at those around us dealing with demons and illness and disruption, continues the picture with personal content. How is it that one can make sense of this, be positive, keep up a good spirit, be stoic? Face it, there is not much hope in what we see, more, rather, a certainty that we all seem to move toward our temporal end. Our hope is in God, not in the things of this world. Therefore, the more serious we are about longing for the promised new creation of God, revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the more we can engage this dying world without dreariness and despair, but with the vision of the a new creation.
Action – Repentance and Creation:
Today, look for signs of the new creation, not just a restoration of the old creation, place and people and circumstances in which God is breaking into this veil of decay giving us a glimpse of an eternal blessing. (These examples are “miracles”.)