Soren Kierkegaard once wrote, “Life is lived forward but understood backwards.”  God’s future breaks into our lives.  Sometimes we know it.  Sometimes we don’t.  Often we come to terms with it and recognize it much later.  Regardless of our understanding, God still breaks in day by day and we, living forward, understand backwards. 

Our lives are woven into God’s story, which always moves forward, even as it looks back.  To the cross.  To creation.  To God’s constant work towards redemption and new creation.  To the ineffable moments that act as a rupture, breaking open the gospel into our lives.

It is said that what you look for you will find.  If you’re looking for a dead story that has long lost its passion, you will find it.  If you find a word that is easily wrestled and rigidly categorized, you will find it.  But, if you squint a little and search for a long lost and unbelievable story of life on death’s doorsteps, you may encounter an ever new and fresh story, old as it may be.  We’re looking for a story we haven’t yet heard, though it comes with familiar characters and settings. 

As preachers we often act as tour guides.  As a tour guide, a preacher points to the places where the new creation is bursting forth in the midst of the old.  And so we begin our year, looked at forward, on this end of things, trusting that we’ll only understand once we return.

If you’re just looking for the photos, go here: http://gallery.me.com/jgrangaard