The Pastor’s Blog – MENDING FENCES
Thanksgiving Monday, while many families sat down to their Thanksgiving dinner, I was in the front yard mending my fence. Two weeks previously, a windstorm shook the fence enough that it snapped a post and left me with the leaning fence of Nanaimo!
My fence borders a small pasture where sheep graze. The day I was working on the fence three young sheep came to check me out, and see what I was doing. Our neighbours, owners of the sheep, are getting old and frail, so I count it as my responsibility to keep our fence standing, and the sheep in the pen. I would hate to see the sheep get loose and get hurt outside of their safe field.
Our lives have a safe place to dwell in as well. That place is within the will of God. That will is spelled out for us in the Word of God, which gives us instruction on everything from finances to family, from romance to employment, from marriage to death (no, they are not related).
Besides that practical instruction, it also gives us the theological reasons why we live as we do, how God has a plan for our lives, and how, in love, He sent His Son to be our Saviour so that we could be freed from sin and live the life designed for us. No wonder some people like to refer to the Bible as Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.
What if the fences God set up to protect seem to blow down? What if our education causes us to start doubting God as our Creator? What if our cancer causes us to start doubting God’s goodness? What if the death of our child causes us to question God’s power and love? What if we do not see ourselves measuring up to all we feel God wants for us?
All these questions can make it seem like the fence of our lives is giving way. It appears to lean a little, or maybe feel like a post is giving way. Nevertheless, it is still there. God hasn’t changed and His Word is still true. We may not trust the safety of that fence anymore, so God comes along side of us and walks us around the fence – maybe through a sermon, a Bible Study, our personal devotions – and we know without a doubt that we are still safe. The fence is secure.
– Pastor Gary