This is life

Jesus is baptized and named the Beloved and then is immediately driven to the wilderness.

Comforting or disturbing, this is life. From one moment to the next, we are celebrating a wedding, then grieving a loved one not present. We are feeling calm, cool, and collected, and then are thrown off balance by a horrible news report. We are bathing in the refreshing waters of baptism, then all of a sudden are driven out into the wilderness.

Whether dramatic or subtle, whether gradual or immediate, life is changing, and we are changing. We are called to places we would never choose. We suffer and wonder if we’ll make it. We stretch and grow stronger.

In all of this a voice calls out from heaven, “You are my beloved children.” We remember how water splashed on us has claimed each one of us forever, no matter what. Wherever we are on the timeline of life, God claims us.

This message is an excerpt from a Café article: “We are claimed in the wilderness” by Joy McDonald Coltvet.Today is the 17th Sunday after Pentecost. We remeber Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, martyr, who died around 258.

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