Is there a three-year period of your life that you are especially proud of? To determine that answer as you reflect, I’m willing to bet it will have something to do with your occupation, your career. Maybe a place you lived, a battle with cancer or other devastating illness. It would be the same for Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter’s son. At a time in human history of his Heavenly Father’s choosing, Jesus arrived via the agency of the Holy Spirit working through Mary. At a seemingly random time, about the age of thirty, Jesus began his three-year ministry. Why not at the age of twelve, when he dazzled the scribes, rabbis, and Pharisees in the temple? Or eighteen, the age of adulthood? Twenty-one, another age of passage? Good questions for our life to come. We know that God has no need for our sense of time.

My three-year period might be a time in my Navy career of greatest achievement. The first three years of our daughter’s life. My time at seminary. As for my ministry, I know that I could not serve three thousand years and accomplish an ounce of what the carpenter’s son did. That’s as it should be. We are servants of the servant. Our lives reflect his, and his three years were the most extraordinary of any in human history. But consider this: his three-year ministry of unprecedented teaching, healing, miracles, love, and mercy did not change one iota the world’s suffering. In the end, his own turned on him when their lives under Roman rule were not made easier. Then he stood submissively and allowed the horrendous circumstances of tyranny to be played out. They felt like their hopes had been dashed. We humans can be so fickle.

We bear witness to the kingdom of God, and it’s here. Even with continuous hunger, poverty, despair, and suffering. The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ tells us all we need to know about the nature of God. He grieved when his Son died; many have lost children. His Son experienced all the agony and pain of the world with his outstretched arms. Three years of work seems laughably, insidiously short to us, until we look at the bigger picture, the ultimate purpose and end. Because God loves us unconditionally, we can trust and rest secure in His promises. We can do a lot in three years. Heck, in three minutes! Rather than lament wasted time and opportunities, embrace the hopeful potential of each moment. Listen for God’s calling. He is proud of you.  

Pastor Art