NO MAN'S LAND
27th Dec 2017
For several years, at about this time, I travelled with a small team to Eastern Germany to take a Retreat for a Lutheran Order of Sisters. It was in the days before the ‘wall came down’ and one of the scary parts was crossing the border. As we approached the frontier our passports were taken and we were instructed to cross ‘no man’s land’. We slowly travelled across the barren landscape, with a slight sense of foreboding; would everything be in order? Would our travel documents be returned safely?
We always got through, eventually, and had some amazing times with as we saw God at work, healing, restoring and reinvigorating these dedicated sisters with the power of the Holy Spirit. I always have a kind of ‘no man’s land’ feeling in the days between Christmas and New Year; 2107 has almost gone and the New Year beckons, but what will happen is largely unknown.
Jesus was entering ‘no man’s land’ as He approached the Cross, and he spoke these words to the disciples, “You will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” When facing the unknown, it is not what we know about the future, but who we know is with us - our Father God.
As Jesus was speaking to the eleven just before he ascended to His Father, He had these words of reassurance, “Therefore go.....and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)
Ephesians 2:10 has been a great source of strength to me at the times when I don’t really know what lies ahead. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
2018 is not a mystery to our Father God, He knows what is ahead and He will go with us into the unknown. He is loving, faithful and strong, and He will be with us as we take each step.
Let’s approach the coming year with joy, faith and anticipation.
by Charles Sibthorpe
