Baby Laughter

Did you know that God has laughter in your future?  Do you ever  get so focused on the problems and trials you are going through in following Christ that you forget there are some really fun times to come?  Do you think that Jesus and his disciples had a good hard laugh together?  Do you ever wonder if God has a sense of humor?

I have read this week about Isaac, whose very name means laughter -"he laughs" in Hebrew.  Abraham laughed before God when the Lord told him he would have a son in his old age.  In Genesis 17:21 God even told them to give him the name Isaac. Sarah laughed to herself in Genesis 18:12 where her strange heavenly guests told Abraham she would have a baby by this time next year.  They gave the baby a name that brings back the memory.  They also gave him the name that would point to what people would do when they heard that people as old as Sarah and Abraham had a child.  They laughed.  They would snicker.  They would say, "No way" (in Hebrew of course).

I think it also points to an experience that Abraham and Sarah would have in the future as this child of promise, this miracle baby, came into their lives.  There would be a lot more laughter in their tent and their lives.  God planned that for them and he plans that for you.

This Sunday we will talk about a "Path through Trials."  But maybe today we just need a moment to reflect on the laughter God brings into our lives, often through children.  Take a minute to watch this video and think about Abraham, Sarah and Isaac laughing.  God has some good laughs in our future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxUulGkLu4I

(Disclaimer:  As you go to this video, I have no control over what ad if any may show before you see it but it is just over a minute long and you will not be able to keep from laughing).

for the journey...

Tim

Reunion

I got to speak last Saturday at a Baptist Student Ministry Reunion back at my Alma mater in College Station.  The crowd was a mixture of older and younger Aggies.  It brought back a lot of memories, very good memories, of things God did while I was there and encouragement at what God is doing now.

I mentioned to that group I would be baptizing a young woman from China the next day back at Northside.  It brought back to my mind the first encounter I had ever had from a person from another country - another Asian student at A&M when I was a student there.  He had questions about Jesus and I tried to answer them.  I felt ill equipped - concepts and truths I knew suddenly became fuzzy as I tried to explain them in non-church terms that an international student could understand.

When I was talking to Effie, the Chinese student I baptized, my mind went back to that first Asian student.  I felt much better equipped to talk to Effie last week than I did years ago to that first Asian student.  It is amazing how God prepares us for things yet to come.  Why would God give me numerous encounters with international students during my BSM days, both as a student and as a staff member?  He knew what was ahead.  He had a plan.  I was clueless.

I mentioned to the reunion at the A&M BSM how that ministry is an equipping place.  I had no idea when I was a student there that I would some day be a pastor - a pastor in Victoria with a Chinese congregation within our church.  I would never have dreamed that I would be here and someday baptize students from China.  (I think the total is now eight).

God does have a plan. God does prepare us for the future, often in ways we are unaware of because we don't know the future he is planning.  Perhaps today, he prepared you or he prepared me for his plan through some new, awkward moment where we felt ill equipped. 

As the Lord told Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you..."  Plans for you and for me and for people we have yet to meet.

I will be out this Sunday but when I return in a week I will be preaching on God's plan for everyone, a single event that will touch everyone in history.  Like I said, he has a plan.

For the journey...

Tim