No Video

When I was young, my mother's sister and her family lived overseas for several years. From time to time, we'd send them videotapes of ourselves--a letter is nice, but you can see and hear a person on a video.

One morning, my mother spotted a series of hot air balloons floating above our house. She got out the videocamera and began recording the balloon race. I watched the race too, and my mother and I commented about the different colors and designs of the various balloons, the tape all the while recording our comments. But only our comments. The tape was just video of the balloons and audio of our voices.

I'm not sure why, but my mom sent this videotape to her sister and her family. Later, they joked about how frustrating it was to hear our voices but not see us. They knew we were there because they could hear our voices. But they longed to see our faces.

For some reason, I thought about this the other day, this memory from my childhood. And it made me think about how frustrating it can be when God seems so far away. He seems a world away. We can see His creations, and sometimes we can even hear His voice. We know He's there. But we can't see Him. But someday we will. And it is also a comfort to remember Matthew 28:20: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Jesus is with us. Always. And He always will be. Remember this. Remind yourself constantly. We've got a big brother who is always there to guide us, cheer us, protect us, and love us.

The Good Times and the Bad Times

This morning I read the first half or so of Mark 1. When I read the account of Jesus' baptism and then what followed, I stopped and pondered. After Jesus was baptized (an act of submission to God the Father), He was tempted by Satan for 40 days. In the desert. Alone. Well, alone until the angels came and cared for Him.

So I got to thinking....

Have you ever gone through a period of good times, only to go through a really bad time? You keep thinking things just can't get any worse, but they do. Unfortunately, during the good times, we often forget about God. We don't pray regularly, we don't read our instruction manual (i.e., the Bible), we let our church attendance slide or at least don't really put our all into it when we're there. So then when the bad times come (which they do because we live in a fallen world), we're not prepared for them.

Jesus experienced a good time (His baptism) and then immediately a bad time (the temptation by Satan). I'm sure He was pretty hacked off about it at times. Good grief, stupid Satan! Just leave me alone! But He was prepared. How was He prepared? He was prepared with Scripture. Also, He was attended by angels. When we are combatting evil, we need God's people attending us. That will probably mean that you need to reach out and ask for help. We can't all read each other's minds. So we have to reach out.

I pray that you are daily preparing yourself for whatever you may face and are developing relationships with people who are doing the same.