Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.” John 20:21.

Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:7-10 NKJV.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:16 NKJV.

This morning in our Friday Zoom Retreat, we brought forth pressing needs in prayer and they felt overwhelming and heavy. We brought forth praise as well and that gave the needed balance of remembering and seeing God is working in all of it. And then our presenter shared what a well known astrophysicist called “The God of the Gap”. For forces in astrophysics they can see that should have an effect that can be measured, but doesn’t, he called The God in the Gap – a gap until such time as their understanding increases through advancements in their field of study. And I loved that because there are things in our own personal lives, what one member described as being in the “wilderness”, a place we don’t want to be and wouldn’t ask to be, but where God meets us; and things in our nations, and our world we have no control over – and Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, is there. Our presenter suggested we need to keep looking for what God will do when our limited understanding fails. I’ll remember that instead of being so quick to be reactive to events as though my reactiveness, instead of my faith in what God will do, will change any outcome. And then our chapter, Romans 9, is all about God in the Gap! I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “Through Isaac your descendants will be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac, for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known…endured with much patience…vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory…even us…whom He also called, not from among Jews only…but also from among Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ and her who was not beloved, ‘Beloved.’” “And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they shall be called sons of the living God.” Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.” And just as Isaiah foretold, “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, we would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.” What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

What gaps is God working in today? We can be so caught up in living in this broken world, just as every generation past, that we can’t see Creator God working, but He is. I don’t want to be quick to condemn anyone as not saved. Isn’t that what we are so ready to do by our reasoning that is not God’s reasoning? I want to stop thinking I have all the answers, because I don’t even have the right questions. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly…The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…that means something! I don’t want to trust the thief…who does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…I want to trust Creator God who is in all the gaps we don’t understand or even know exist. I want to be excited to trust Him! I watched a movie recently, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret…about an eleven year old girl who realized that she could talk to God in private just as she was with her eleven year old concerns. That’s when she felt close to God. I pray God’s Spirit enlightens all our hearts to know we can talk to Him…and He is here. And if we take the time to be still, and listen, He talks with us in a still, quiet, and gentle voice – His unmistakable voice of authority in His love and His peace. And we even learn to wait in expectation and hope to see what He is doing and trust Him for everything because He knows. I will call those who were not My people, “My people,” and her who was not beloved, “Beloved.” And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there they shall be called Sons of the Living God!