What is important is not what someone is but what (s)he is waiting for. Not the events of life but its possibilities. Dorothee Soelle
Meditation: I remember when my husband and I just got married. It was a happy and also a somewhat anxious time. How would a bi-racial couple make it in the South of the US? How would we use our education? We did not have any money, so all depended on the two of us and how industrious we would become. The superintendent of the German church where I was a pastor at that time said a sentence that my husband and I never forgot. He said: “The future is wide open for the two of you.” That sentence directed us toward our future filled with possibilities. It was such a powerful blessing, and we held onto those words for years to come. Today when my teenage daughter gets frustrated or sad about how she perceives her past or present as hindering her in one way or the other, I say a similar sentence, like “This is just the beginning and not the end of your story” or “Your future is full of possibilities”. Usually that calms her emotions and moves her frustration, sadness or anxiety into a new direction. “Yes, the future is wide open.” Thank God!
Prayer: Gracious God, the Advent season reminds us that You are coming toward us from the future. We are reminded to await Your coming in always surprising and new ways. Even though we remember, at time painfully, our past – it does not determine our future or Your possibilities for us. God, help us await a future that builds on and is yet different from our past. You are the God of possibilities, of transformation and of healing. You are the one encouraging and strengthening us. And we are grateful. Amen
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:15
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