Rev. Jess M. George
Dearly beloved in Christ,
Let us thank God for the blessings we have, to come to the 7th and 8th months
of this year. As Americans, we will be celebrating the 248th Independence Day
on July 4th
. As well as that our motherland India celebrates her 77thIndependence Day. Let us thank God for our nation and our roots and keep our countries
and her leaders in prayers for God-given strength and reconciliation in diversity
pointing towards Christ-centered living. Let us also praise God for the heritage
we have as St. Thomas Christians. We commemorate July 3rd as St. Thomas
Day and as we recognize the life of the apostle Thomas, let us also understand
even during doubt and uncertainty, we can learn to honestly acknowledge it
and grow further in our faith. That is the lesson we learn from St. Thomas, we
are also not perfect, but we should grow in faith in our God who is perfect and
as St. Thomas claimed out loud, we should recognize and commit to our God
personally as “My Lord and My God”.
August is an important year for many of us, as it is a month of harvest. Many
of our homes have good vegetables grown and cared for, and to see the fruit of
the labor is quite significant throughout this month. It helps us to feel like we
accomplished something great, through giving our time, effort, and patience. Protecting our fruits is something that we also find challenging as well,
especially from invaders such as rabbits and squirrels. If all our work, time,
and labor in understanding the protection of our garden are seen as a great illustration that reminds us of our lives, where are we spiritually today? Through
the garden caring process, we have no choice but to be patient, but in life in
general we have so many choices to make. Often so, we tend to target the
choice that has less time and is more comfortable to deal with. When we look
at human life, we must realize it is much more fragile and more vulnerable if
we do not carry out care and patience. We end up being premature and various
areas in life, especially in our spiritual journey. We often must remind ourselves to wait. We should not wait by depending on ourselves but wait with
God. A saying goes “Time spent waiting on God, is time never wasted”. Being patient enables us to look back and understand the fruits of our life with
humility and honor God with gratitude.
I would like to end with acknowledging and congratulating our 12 youths who
graduated High School this year and are going to start their college journey. Let us continue to keep them and all our youths in prayers.
May God bless us, have a blessed Summer!
Much love,
Rev. Jess M. George
