When I was first ill, and it was becoming clear that I would no longer be able to continue in active ministry, life became full of uncertainties. Where would we live? What would happen? How long would I be “out” for? Everyone else seemed quite worried, but I felt a great God-given peace. After all God had brought us here, he journeyed with us, not just on good days, but the bad ones to. He is a God of valley bottoms, as much as hill tops. This is probably contrary to all my natural inclinations, for I am a “stress head” about most things, but I could truly say that I was confident that I walked by faith and not by sight. And that has proved to be true. God has not let us down yet. There may be twists and turns in life, ups and down, but God is there and can work his purposes out. He is doing something different with our lives than what we might have thought, or seemed obvious.
This is what this weeks readings are alluding to. Things are not always how we think they might be. Hope is not always where we think we see it – neither is despair or hopelessness. God can do a different thing – and it will be good – though maybe not as we expect. Ezekiel makes this point. It may be the tall tree that is cut down, and the small one that grows; or the green tree that withers and the dry looking tree that becomes green and full of life. We do not know – and so we cannot judge. Again Jesus reminds us the smallest thing can become the biggest thing. What was once a small seed, can end up giving shelter for many. Size, health, wealth are no measure of what God can do. Sometimes we need to be willing to look beyond the obvious and apparent.
And so Paul reminds us not to judge by human standards. It can be very easy to make assumptions. We see something, and draw what we feel to be the obvious conclusion, when that may or may not be the case. Being joined to Jesus makes us a new being, the old has gone – anything is possible. Hope, new life, re-growth, or something different than our assumptions are always possible. God never leaves us. He is trustworthy. We can walk by faith in him – and watch as he does a new thing – in our lives, and in our world.
