Second Sunday after Christmas

“When God first thought of you,” is the title of my mediation today and is a loaded statement. Two ideas immediately come out of this statement. First – God does think of you, and not just a passing thought but an intimately, loving, constant thought of you. Second – “first” is actually misleading as we consider what the Apostle Paul tells us in our passage today. “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,” tells us that God’s thought of us is eternal. There is no beginning or end to His thinking of us. And that is mind-boggling!

When we think of relationships we often think of a beginning and an end - especially beginnings. I remember when I first met my wife. We were both part of Ongoing Ambassadors for Christ, a youth evangelism organization. Every year there would be “Summer Training” for a week at a large church. One such summer, amidst over 200 youth, I met Sara. I remember the letters we wrote back and forth since we lived in different states and I remember our first date when she came with friends to visit me at college. I can’t imagine not being with Sara but there was a time when we didn’t know each other.

Another example vivid for me of how relationships on earth have a beginning and an ending is our foster care relationships. Often it is a simple phone call that a child is in need of a home. We do a little scrambling to get things ready and the child comes into our home that day. And just a quickly as they come into our lives they may leave either back to their parents or to another situation. Relationships on this side of eternity have a beginning and an ending.

But God’s relationship has no beginning or ending. Our relationship with God didn’t begin when we were baptized, or accepted God’s promised salvation in Christ. God’s relationship began before the foundation of the world – it is eternal. And it doesn’t end. God doesn’t leave us or forsake us. He doesn’t deside to walk out on us because we are unfaithful or unloving towards Him. Not even death can separate us from God’s loving relationship with us. So let us explore the Past, Present and Future from our perspective and from God’s.

Past – We often talk about reminiscing of the past. But the past can also be filled with regret. We as sinful humans beings often dwell on our many past mistakes. The “should of”, “could of” and “what if” ideas plague us. When we look to the past we often see our mistakes and shortcomings.

But when God looks to the past He sees things differently. Paul says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” (Ephesians 1:3-5, ESV) God sees the past fulfillment of His plan of salvation for us to make us holy and blameless. But we don’t feel holy and blameless – we feel like “poor miserable sinners.” But God, in His eternal plan of salvation and love for us, sent Jesus to be our Savior. Through Jesus’ act of salvation, in the past, we now are adopted into God’s family. God sees us through Jesus, through His eyes of love and mercy. God redeems our past.

Present – Sometimes we talk about the good old days. We dwell on how good it was in the past. Often this is through selective memories but I also think it is because we don’t like living in the present. In the present is where we face all our pains, troubles and heartaches. It is in the present that we deal with the “daily grind”, the “tyranny of the urgent” and feel often the most trapped. The present can be a scary place for us to live.

But God sees it another way. Paul continues, “To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:6-10, ESV) The present is the place where God shows His grace and mercy to us and we grow to trust in Him.

We have redemption, the riches of His grace lavished on us that can see us through the daily grind. We can bring our present trouble to God and He will lighten our load. He gives us the wisdom, through His word, to know that He will guide us and lead us through each day. God invites us, challenges us, to trust in Him each day. And in His eternal loving relationship for us He lavishes on us His rich grace and mercy. God’s eternal relationship is present now with us.

Future – God is with us now, but what about the future. As we celebrate the passing of another year we often make resolutions that this year will be better. We may even say, “The future looks bright.” But here again, if we are honest with ourselves, we are fearful of the future – because it is unknown. What will tomorrow bring? Will I have a job, a house, a family to love me? Even the media, when seeing what crisis’ we face today predict gloomy or at least cautious future. What does the next day, week, or year hold for us?

In God’s sight the future is bright, bright with the love of God in Christ Jesus. Paul concludes this section with these words, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:11-14, ESV) Inheritance - that is what the future holds. We have an eternal inheritance in Christ. He has won for us eternal life through His death and resurrection. And just a wish of a maybe future – this is a guarantee! For those who are in Christ we know what the final outcome will be – life with God in eternity. We may not know what the next day holds, but we know what the future holds – and inheritance won for us through Jesus Christ.

The past, the present, and the future – from our perspective we don’t see things clearly. But from God’s eternal perspective all of it is part of His loving and gracious plan of salvation for us. God sees our relationship with Him through the eyes of eternity. When did God first love you? He has always loved you, a love beyond comprehension, but a love that redeems our past, make the present livable and give us a hope and a future. Amen