In last week's devotional, I shared some thoughts from my few days in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I had quite a few responses to it and wanted to share this one from Joel Bromley, who read what I had written and was reminded of God's faithfulness over generations. I share his email with permission and know you will be encouraged by it like I was. Enjoy!
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Hey Pastor Tracy,
It’s not NOTL, but these pictures are from the Beamsville/Grimsby area. The backdrop of these photos look like any other parcel of land in that area, covered in grapevines and trellis’.
You’d drive past it and not think a thing. In the winter (it might even have been February when these pictures were taken) it’s even more non-descript and lonely feeling there.
I researched this dirt and saw it not for what it was (non descript parcel of land like every other one beside it) and we went there for what it means and for what it used to be in our family line and the direction our family is going in and the part that the people who settled here have played unknowingly.
To anyone else it’s nothing, not worth more than whatever the value of the land or crops might be worth, but to our family, it’s part of our story and a bit of a bridge between the God fearing relatives that came to Canada after the American Revolutionary War and settled in Beamsville and where our family currently stands spiritually.
So, while it looks a certain way, to me, it shows the work of God.
Hundreds of years ago when these family members settled in America, some escaping from Religious persecution, and then after losing in the Revolutionary War for the north and settling in Niagara Region, God was working. These family members, when retreating to this land, clearing it and working it, never knew the path their great, great, great, great, great, great (I think it’s 6 greats but I’d have to check again) granddaughter and her family would be living for the Lord and praying that for generations to come this would continue to be true.
I don’t know who, if anyone, between that time and the present, followed Jesus (and we’re nothing great). But God. Whoo! Over hundreds of years, God was doing something that our current family is part of for as long as He lets us.
What is He doing on those properties? I don’t know. But He’s alive and active in the story that’s brought us to where we are!
Joel
THIS SUNDAY
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18 @ 10am
THE BIBLE SAYS WHUT? GENESIS EDITION
Do Words Have Power?
Tracy Dunham
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