Years ago, there was a great theologian and author named G. K. Chesterton. Everyone who knew him said he walked close to God. H. G. Wells once said to him, “If after all my theology turns out wrong and your theology right, I feel I shall always be able to pass into heaven as a friend of G. K. Chesterton’s.” Chesterton replied by saying, “Sorry, H. G. It’s not ‘what a friend we have in G. K. Chesterton,’ but ‘what a friend we have in Jesus’ that enables us to pass into heaven.”
The forgiveness that Christ provides brings us into our heavenly home as full members of the divine family where we are protected and cherished, nurtured and taught at the knee of our Savior. Thanks to Jesus, we may also now address the ultimate reigning power of the cosmos as “Abba.” Father.
Anyone who is a parent knows that parenting is a 24/7/365 undertaking. It doesn’t matter if your child is six months, six years, 16 years, 36 years, or 60 years old — if you are a parent, you are forever on-call, forever available. Consider, then, how much more extensive is the parental care that we may receive from God who is in no way limited by the junctures of time and space.
There is never again any experience in life or death that we must face alone. No matter how great our fear or how intense our pain, no matter how prolonged our wait or how profound our doubts, the promise of the gospel is that God is there for us; God is there alongside us 24/7/365.
I once heard of a wrecker service in Georgia that was available 23 and 1/2 hours a day. The trouble was, no one knew when the 1/2 hour was. Isn’t it good to know that there’s never a time when God is not available to us, when God is not there for us? There is a song in The Cotton Patch Gospels that says, “There Ain’t No Busy Signals on the Hotline to God.” How true! We are blessed to have a 24/7/365 God.
In the name of the One who can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
Bruce Jones, Pastor and Co-Creator,
Imagine Church of the Carolinas
