A Story to Share

“’He is not here; he is risen, just as he said…’

So, the women hurried from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell the disciples.” Matthew 28:6,8

During this past season of This is Us, one of the main characters Toby finds out some life-changing news. He is SO excited! So great is his joy that he goes to a local coffee shop and asks the barista to play his happy song as he loudly announces to a room full of strangers that he is going to be a dad.

Have you ever had something to share that was so urgent, so life-giving that you didn’t waste any time in sharing it with others? Maybe you immediately tweeted that you just got engaged, or posted photos on Instagram about your new grandbaby, or maybe you made a phone call or texted friends that the tumor was benign. When we have important and exciting news, we often want to shout it from the rooftops, blow our social media trumpets,

process. They went expecting to participate in death, not life. So, they were more than a little startled when they were greeted by a man who radiated light and whose power and message was from God. The angel tells them that Jesus is ALIVE! The man they loved, their teacher who died, was and still is the God of life. Even death yielded its mighty power to the resurrected Jesus.

Imagine their excitement as the angel shares that the story of Jesus is not over. It’s a story they have to share with the disciples. And in their world where social media is verbal communication, they runto tell the disciples the incredible, life-altering news,

Jesus is ALIVE! If we have encountered Jesus, this is our story, too. Are we in a “hurry” to share with those whose reality,

like the disciples, is shadowed by death? To run to share that  Jesus is ALIVE?   

Pastor Sarah

The One

Have you ever lost something important, something that you valued?

I have. I was with a friend once, who lost something of incredible value, something that was both personally and financially significant. Her husband had just bought her a beautiful bracelet to celebrate their 15th
anniversary. Enjoying her new gift, she got of the ship believing she was wearing it. She wasn’t. Somewhere between the breakfast table and customs it had fallen off. She was distraught, and began looking through her things to find it. She began to ask others to help her find it, and those around her began to pray that she would find her bracelet.

 

It was eventually found, fallen by the breakfast table. What joy she had when she found it! When her 1 bracelet was lost, my friend was far less concerned about her 99 other possessions, although they were still important to her. She was going to do everything she could to find her bracelet, her one missing valuable!  
Similarly, Jesus tells a parable about how there were 99 sheep and 1 missing. The shepherd looks for the 
lost sheep, because every sheep has value, every sheep matters to the shepherd. 
 

Maybe you have never lost a bracelet or a sheep. But, if you have lost something of value, then you understand what it is like to care enough to go searching for it until it’s found. See, the story of the lost sheep is as much about what is lost and found as it is about the One who won’t stop searching until what is lost is found. Like the shepherd, God never stops searching for the lost soul who still needs to know Jesus.

Pastor Sarah