October 24, 2022
“And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” ~ Matthew28:20 NRSV
Maybe you’ve heard the sermon illustration about a man whose neighborhood was flooded. He managed to get up on his roof and he prayed fervently that God would rescue him. Someone came by in a rowboat and offered him help. He politely refused and said God would save him. Not long after, a helicopter flew overhead, and one of the pilots asked if he wanted them to through down a rope to haul him up and to safety. Again, he declined because God was going to save him.
He dies, and when he gets to heaven, he asked God why God didn’t answer his prayer. God’s reply, “I sent you the boat and the helicopter, but you didn’t accept their help.” The point is that God was present all the time. The man on the house didn’t recognize him.
I cut the cartoon below out of the Charlotte Observer shortly before I accepted the call to be the pastor of St. Paul’s in Woodstock, VA. I put it on the bulletin board behind my computer desk in my office at church. As so often happens with things that I see every day, I stopped looking at it, and forgot it was there.
When I got back home from the pilgrimage, I cut a new cartoon out of the local newspaper to put on my bulletin board. It was then that I noticed the cartoon. It was there all the time, and I didn’t notice it. Just like God.
Grateful that God is present always, to the end of the age. ~ Anne
Wayfinding 