The Long Game

The Long Game

Haggai 2:7-9

Oh Zarubbabel,

Haggai should have told you that you were to be only part 1,

that 520 B.C. was only the beginning.That the temple will burn to the ground long before the glory will come 514 years later when honored men will leave their lush homes and travel close to a thousand miles to lay gifts of riches at the feet of the Peace that He promises.

But we will forgive Haggai.

He must not have known.

God is playing the long game.

Abram and Sarai waited years and years to have a promised child, and did not live to see their descendants fill the earth, did not know that their line would one day produce a great King.

Ahh, and Joseph, how many like you were imprisoned, or beaten or tortured, to be later used for a greater purpose. A purpose that so often saved your own enemies from destruction.

Moses, abandoned by your own mother as an infant, would that she had known you would one day lead your people, her people, out of slavery.

God is playing the long game.

My grandmother did not know that her daughter, and one of her son's in law would save a small child on the other side of the world from a short lifetime of unthinkable anguish, through amazing acts of coordination, generosity, skill, and love.

God is playing the long game.

A retired teacher could not have known that 25 years after he taught her, a kind intelligent woman would make his son's wake and funeral a beautiful memorial, lending her patience, understanding, and compassion to the worst day of his life.

God is playing the long game.

And what of the mothers of Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Abraham Lincoln, Mohamed Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev,

Buz Aldrin, Martin Luther, MLK Jr., Nelson Mandela, Dorothy Day, U Thant, Malala Yousafzai, Lech Walesa, Betty Williams,Benjamin Franklin, Dalai Lama………..

How could they have known that this child whom they prayed for, held, and loved, would become who they were?

And of course there's Mary. Who bears the Savior of all mankind.

One more mother held in endless outstretched arms.

God is playing the long game.

*The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God is playing the long game.

*2And remember, the Lord's patience gives people time to be saved.

God is playing the long game.

My child who first learned of slavery in third grade and came home in a fit of fury that such a thing could ever take place, who regularly threw his assigned copy of To kill A Mockingbird across the room in disgust, and who finds all forms of racism to be intolerable, is now reading Eli Wiesel's Night with tears and disbelief.

God is playing the long game.

*3He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

God is playing the long game.

*Second Peter 3:9

*2second Peter 3:15

*3Revelations 21:4-5