With All the Saints, To Grasp

I don’t think I’ll forget that Russell, Andrea and their boys surprised us with a send off at the Palmerston North airport. I think it was the night before they had us over with some of their extended family we came to know and love. Russell Williams was our pastor in New Zealand and our friend.

I know I’ll want to remember the many rainbows we saw on our journey home. Sure, you can be a skeptic and say “You’re impressed with rainbows in New Zealand? It rains there you know.” But the rainbow is God’s commitment to hold himself true to his promise. In ancient times when a covenant was made in the middle east, the guarantor of the covenant would string an arrow and pull back the bow, aiming the tip at himself. In affect saying, “Should I fail to keep my promise, I’ll release the arrow and take my own life.”

God gave the sign to Noah and every time I see it, I remember God will fulfill his promises to me. So yes, it cheered me up to see a rainbow in Palmerston North when we took off, and in Auckland when we landed, and when we traveled around Auckland spending time with some friends, and the next day in Auckland when we took off, and on the floor in LAX when we waited for the security check, and through the window on the airplane flying up to Vancouver, and in Vancouver when we landed, and on a poster in Vancouver when we waited, and on someone’s jacket on the flight to Edmonton, and in the Edmonton terminal somehow artificially on the floor when we arrived home.

It could just be my overactive imagination looking for confirmation we did the right thing. Or it could be God speaking to me in a way he knew I would understand and accept. As you can see, I choose the latter view. Why?

Because when we arrived in Edmonton, we were overwhelmed at the reception from our family and friends. It was good to know people wanted to see you, but it was also more than that. God has created us for community. We need to have friends. We need to be needed. We need each other to confirm God’s direction.

We need each other’s perspective to grasp a fuller glimpse of the Divine.

Embracing our family and friends gave flesh to the embrace God had been giving us all the way home by reminding us of his commitment to hold himself true to his promise.

How often are you embraced by the body of Christ? We all need divine truth to take on flesh once in a while. We also all need to be the one to have divine truth take on flesh in us.

It’s how we’re wired.

Embrace it.

–Trevor Lund