Central Abbotsford

Mondays, most of the time, are my day off. As it happens, my wife Andrea also generally has Mondays off of work. This means that, aside from the 30 or so Mondays over the course of the year that are holidays, Pro-D days, vacation days, or days that a kid is home sick, it is a true day off (at least between 8:30-3:00) for us to enjoy together. 

This fall, we have incorporated a good long walk together as part of our daily routine. In September and October, we enjoyed some beautifully warm early fall days for our walks. However, as the fall has deepened and the days have shortened, the chances of good weather for our strolls have, as expected in this part of the world, decreased.

That said, each of the last two Mondays have not been all bad! There have been some pockets of blue sky, or at least overcast and dry sky, on each of them! The thing is, we have not timed our walks to line up with those moments. Each of the last two weeks, shortly after leaving our house, a slight drizzle has started, which has led to a steady shower, which eventually led to driving rain by about the midpoint of our circuit (exactly as far from home as can be!). This week, we even finished our walk with some wet snowflakes mixed in. There’s nothing like walking up a hill with a cup of water sloshing around in your running shoes.

There are times in life where the “little things” like this just get at you. Maybe it’s not rain on a walk – maybe it’s getting in the wrong line at Costco or the border, or getting stopped at a train crossing unexpectedly on your drive across town – whatever it is, most of us have had times where something small causes us to cry out “does it really have to be this way?”

Of course, there are the “big things” too – loss, grief, heartbreak, and the like – and I do not mean to diminish them, especially for those of you walking through them right now. It will always be my prayer that the God of all comforts, and the church of His people, will be close to the hurting and suffering in these moments.

But even these small moments – the little frustrations and disappointments of life – can be signposts pointing us to God’s story of redemption. Romans 8:22 reminds us that “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” This groaning is made manifest in a number of different ways, from the great, all the way down to the smallness of a rainy Monday walk. 

The good news is that the story doesn’t end there. Romans 8:23 continues by letting us know that “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly…” which doesn’t sound like good news yet, and again, it wouldn’t be if that’s where things wrapped up. But thanks be to God that they do not!

Our inward groaning continues, but only “as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.” The little moments of frustration, of disappointment, of groaning, are there to remind us of the hope that we have in the good news that we are awaiting the perfected redemption of full adoption into God’s family; indeed, His very presence.

I’ve used the phrase “good news” a few times in this newsletter. “Good news”, as you may well know, is often used as a synonym for the gospel of Jesus Christ (indeed, “good news” is the very definition of “gospel”). These moments of frustration can serve to remind us that the goodness of the good news is only evident to us when it stands against the backdrop of the bad news – the reality of life in a fallen world, groaning under the frustration imposed by sin and its consequences. But, as you wait in another lineup during Christmas shopping (or as your shoes fill with water on a rainy walk), remember that this groaning is not without purpose – or hope.