One of my favorite phrases in Scripture is found more than 450 times in the King James Version of the Bible: “It came to pass.”
This can be very good news, especially as we’re thinking of wilderness times. Wilderness times come. As sure as the sun will rise – there will be a season in our life where it feels, dry, desolate and a bit scary. But, the good news is they don’t stay. They are not permanent. They pass. Wilderness times always come to an end (this too shall pass) and are always followed by a new beginning.
According to Dante, written over the gates of hell are the words, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Sometimes we imagine that those words are written over the gate to the wilderness experiences we’re going through and we are tempted to just give up, to abandon all hope. The good news of our faith, however, is that the wilderness is never the final destination and hope is alive and well, even in that scary and desolate territory.
Life is about growing – right? Think of the seasons of the year … when is the most growth? Spring … and what takes place right before then? Winter.
New beginnings are all over in the Gospel message. No matter who we are or what we’ve done, no matter if the wilderness is of our own making, or if it came from left field, God is present in the wilderness with us, and can lead us through it and eventually out of it. Don’t give up! When we find ourselves in the wilderness of guilt and separation from God and from others, there is a way out of the wilderness and a new beginning. God provides that way. This is the good news!
The apostle Paul knew the power of being made new and set free from the wilderness. Paul wrote, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Jesus told the story of a man who had two sons. One day the younger of the two went to his father and, in so many words, said, “I wish you were dead.” He asked for his inheritance. Not at all appropriate, since his father was very much alive! The father gave his younger son his share of the inheritance and the son ran away and foolishly spent it all. All that money his father had worked hard to earn and set aside for his son was just thrown away – used to satisfy the son’s every whim and desire and, also, trying to buy friends. Not a very pretty picture.
It didn’t take him long to blow his inheritance and he found himself homeless and hungry. Before long, he found himself doing the unthinkable. He wound up feeding pigs and was so hungry he even wanted to eat the pig slop. He was in the wilderness! He hit “rock bottom.” It wasn’t until then that he came to his senses and he said, “How many of my father’s hired help have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!” So, he came up with a plan and decided to go home and beg his father for forgiveness. As he was approaching the familiar place that once had been his home, his father saw him. His father was so overjoyed and excited that he ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.
Jesus taught us that God, in this parable, is like that loving father. If you’re in the wilderness, feeling separated from God, and perhaps you even ran into that wilderness yourself, God is waiting and will run to meet you and welcome you home with open arms, ready to give you a new beginning. It’s not too late. It’s never too late.
The good news of our faith is that the wilderness never has the last word. When Jesus was on the cross, he was in the darkest wilderness of his life. As Jesus hung there, the life draining from him, he experienced the rejection, the anguish and the loneliness of the darkest wilderness. Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But, we know that the cross was not the end.
When you walk through the wilderness know that you’re not alone. No matter what you’re going through, know that the wilderness time shall “come to pass.” I’m wishing you a great week. You’re fabulous.
Rev. Dan Koeshall is the Senior Pastor at The Metropolitan Community Church (The Met) in San Diego, California, themetchurch.org.
