"Start Here: You Are Loved"

Happy New Year! Let me be the first, in writing, to welcome you all

into 2025! With the change of the year, often we find ourselves

feeling hopeful and dreaming about what’s possible in the future.

Many of us will use this time to set resolutions — things on the bucket list

that we want to do, or ways that we want to grow. New Years is an

important time for setting goals and making good plans.

But - real quick - before we all go about making stacks of the books to

read, or making a To Do List of house work, or signing up for gym

memberships, there’s a story about Jesus that might help us out.

In the book Matthew, Jesus is gearing up to start his ministry to save the

world. I’m sure he’s been doing lots of dreaming, and planning, and

praying for a long time. But, before he jumps into the work, he makes a

trip to the river where he gets baptized. There, Jesus hears the voice of

the Father, who really only has one message: “This is my Son, whom I love;

with him I am well-pleased.”

What’s interesting to me, is that, we might think this message would come

AFTER all of Jesus’s work - you do the work, and THEN you get the praise,

right? But, it doesn’t. In the story, Jesus is only ready to go do his ministry

after, first, getting a powerful reminder of his Father’s love for him - and

once that love is “locked in,” he’s ready to go do incredible work.

That might be a good reminder for us. I hope we all have great ideas for all

the good work we want to do, and the ways we want to grow over the

next year, but, before we jump in, stop and remind yourself that God’s

love is already with us - that you and I are God’s beloved as well. However

our year goes, God’s love isn’t something we have to earn, prove, or worry

about losing - it’s all over us.

Now, let’s go out there, and have a great 2025. I’ll give you a Preview:

God’s great love will be there for us on the other side.

Your Fellow Beloved,

—Pastor Kevin