The First Baptist Church of Redlands
T A PE S T R Y
Dec 2020
Wo v e n To g e t h e r I n L o v e : C o l o s s i a n s 2 : 2
A Time...
A Message from Pastor Shawn For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1 A time, a season. Exactly how long is that? We keep asking that question. In March when we first moved everything “home” our lives changed drastically. We thought that it could last a few weeks. Then we thought a season…a literal season, like spring. Then we realized, with some modifications, that this was going to last longer, but maybe we could venture out for some activities. Yet, even with the potential of a vaccine, promising treatments, and personal habits (mask-wearing, social distancing, washing hands, doing things outside), we still have a long way to go until things are normal. What originally seemed like a season of the year (which was certainly long enough) is now, evidently a season of life. When I was 40 years old, I moved with Rod and the kids from Los Angeles, where I had lived my whole life, to Indiana. Christmas in L.A. was FULL. Between every branch of our family as well as church and friends, every moment of the Christmas season was busy and full. We loved it, but it was exhausting. When we moved to Indiana our closest relative was 4-1/2 hours away. It was a time to create new traditions. Not everyone gets to do that in their lives. Most of our traditions are inherited. When we get married, or if there are divorces in the family, our traditions are formed by trying to juggle and put together the various traditions of various parts of our family and loved ones… not to mention church and other aspects of our social life. Sometimes, when all of that is taken away (or far away), we can be intentional about creating traditions. It is hard at first. We miss the things that we used to do along with missing the people with whom we did them. But after a while, the new traditions come to have special meaning, because we have been intentional in creating them. We can ask the question, what is important to me, and those around me, as we celebrate these important holidays.
Issue No. 12
As we come to this season as a church family, we are mourning the loss of time to be physically present with one another, to shake hands and hug, to hear each other sing as we join together in worship in one place. We miss the traditions of Advent and Christmas at FBCR that have been developed over the years. But this is A Time, A Season, that is different. It is a time to create new traditions. They may be for only this year. But some of them may last longer. But let’s allow the new traditions for this year to be meaningful for this time, this season. It is going to be hard. It will probably be sad. We will feel like we are missing out on something. But don’t let it get in the way of gaining something new and appropriate for this time. I hope you will take advantage of all that is available for meditation and celebration this season. We have devotions for each day of Advent, prepared by our own church family, available in print form as well as by email and Facebook. We have advent wreaths for our homes. And we will have special worship opportunities online and, hopefully, a brief time of worship on our lawn on Christmas Eve. At the end of the passage in Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, we read, Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. God has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. We don’t understand all that God is doing at this really difficult time in our lives and in our world. May we be intentional to spend enough time with God that we begin to see the beauty of this time, this season. Think about this: God has planted eternity in the human heart! Meditate on that one for a while! May God richly bless this time, this season, of Advent and Christmas! May we see the beauty of the incarnation as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ! Glory to God in the Highest! Peace and Goodwill to All Humanity!
Pastor Shawn