The Bungee Cord. 10-2-23

Hello,

I woke up this morning, looked out my window, and I smiled. The picture that is attached to this Bungee Cord is what I saw. As you can see, as close as a camera can capture the beauty, the colors of the trees are starting to change. Fall is the most beautiful time of the year here in Western Pennsylvania. The hills are draped in a patchwork quilt of leaves. Orange, red, yellow, gold and burgundy. Every fall, when the colors are at their peak, it is magnificent. Today, as the maple tree that stands at the bottom of the hill is beginning its brilliant transformation, I hear it telling me, “The masterpiece of color is at hand.”

Though the days ahead may be windy and the skies filled with thunderheads and lightning bolts….Though the days ahead may be stifling hot or skin stinging cold…though the days ahead grow shorter and shorter and the darkness longer and longer…Though the sun’s route runs further south and loses some of it warming power…..though no matter what comes along in the days ahead, that maple tree is telling me today that nothing can stop the beauty of what lies ahead, “The masterpiece is at hand.”

I smiled.

Jesus often said such a thing, too. “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Like the first tree to break free from the green of summer, Jesus broke free from the monotony of human life with a love, peace, hope, and joy that the world had never seen before. Jesus’ love was blood red with divine and everlasting forgiveness. Jesus’ peace was a soft orange with divine power to still storms. Jesus’ hope was a gold that a mountain of 24 karat gold could never give to a troubled soul. And Jesus joy was a glimmering yellow that all the stars in the sky could not match. When Jesus broke out of eternity and set his feet in time, his presence was eye grabbing, the beginning go what was yet to come. “The kingdom of God is at hand.”

Unlike the peak fall summers which I have seen, I have not yet seen the incredible wonder of the Kingdom of God when it reaches its peak. I have not seen,

“6 The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

7 The cow and the bear shall graze,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

9 They will not hurt or destroy

on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea. “(Isaiah 11).

But just as surely as the first maple announces the unstoppable transformation of color of the hills, so boldly and surely does Jesus announce the unstoppable transformation of this world. The day is coming when what we see in Jesus, we will see throughout all of God’s domain. The wonder of it will be breathtaking, the delight in it will be palpable, and the duration of it will be everlasting. Nothing will stop its dawning. Each day that passes it comes nearer and nearer.

Today, as you hear the maple tree foretell the wonder that is just around the corner, and you smile….hear Jesus proclaim to you the wonder that will put to shame the wonder of the autumn colors, that is also just around the corner….and see if you don’t find an even greater smile come across your face. “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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