Rev. Peter C. de Vries, Ph.D. has served Old Union since November 1993.
To learn more about Rev. Dr. de Vries, go to FaceBook, Linked-In, or his blog.
FROM THE PASTOR
We might not see the light at the end of the tunnel yet, but we’re starting to sense that it may be just around the corner. More and more people are fully vaccinated for COVID, and the rates of infection, hospitalization, and death are dropping. We still need to be vigilant, but we can also be hopeful that the pandemic will soon be under control.
What next?
God has more in mind for us than “getting back to normal.” “Normal” is looking backward at the way things used to be. But we did not journey through this long travail simply to end up where we started. God is too creative, too powerful, too loving to let that happen. Our God is the God of the future. He calls us to move forward in his will, and not to retreat into what used to be.
I’m not talking about the “new normal” that the pundits chatter about. “New normal,” to my ears, sounds like ongoing restrictions and limitations that will become part of our everyday life. For example, we entered a “new normal” after 9/11, when we had to start taking off our shoes in order to get on an airplane. Granted, such things may become part of the landscape of our daily lives when COVID is in the rear view mirror. But God has something more in mind for us than whatever “new normal” means.
Years ago, during a particularly difficult time in my life, someone told me, “It would be a shame to go through all this and not learn something from it.” That wisdom applies to all of us now: it would be a shame to endure month after month of pandemic and not learn anything from it. God desires for us to discover new things about our world, our community, ourselves, our church, and our God as a result of this crazy time.
The Lord once proclaimed through his prophet Isaiah, ““See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (43:19). He is proclaiming this same announcement today. Through this pandemic, in the midst of all the loss and hardship and loneliness and sorrow, God is doing a new thing. It is springing up; can we perceive it? Can we recognize the new things that God has in store for us?
Do not be blinded by your desire to go back to our old way of living and fail to see the new way of living that God is opening up in front of us. Do not become hardened by the difficulties of the past year and lose your sense of how God has been at work this entire time. Instead, pay attention to what God has already started, so that we together can explore where he is leading us
God is doing a new thing. I don’t know what it is, but I want to find out. I encourage you to join me in discovering what God has in store for our church, our community, our world, and our lives.
Peter
Old Union Presbyterian Church | 200 Union Church Road, Mars, PA 16046
724-538-8672 | OldUnionChurch@gmail.com
724-538-8672 | OldUnionChurch@gmail.com