Hey everyone, my name is Angela Rogers. I’m our children’s ministry director over in Wilmington. I hope you are all doing well and staying safe and healthy, and staying home. I, too, have been staying home, I live in Reading. I think my experience during this time period might be just a little bit different than yours. You can tell it’s pretty quiet here… I live alone. So, I have really been relying a lot on technology – on Zoom, Google, Facetime, etc. It’s been a life saver to stay connected with family and friends and with all of you, with my church family.

I want to just take a moment here with you this morning to share with you one of my very favorite verses. It’s not just been a favorite during this time period, although it’s been really helpful, it’s been a favorite of mine for my whole life.

It comes from a kind of unexpected place. It’s from the middle of the Old Testament from a book called Lamentations. Maybe that seems a little bit odd, but in the middle of this book there are these verses of hope that remind me very much of God’s character and of how much we can rely on him and be thankful and be really reflecting on who he is in our lives

These verses have come up a number of times for me in my life and I’ve found a lot of comfort in them over the past few weeks. It come from Lamentations 3:22-24.

Because of the Lord’s great love,

We are not consumed.

For his compassion never fails.

They are new every morning

Great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, the Lord is my portion

Therefore I will wait for him

It feels like we’re doing a whole lot of waiting right now, and a whole lot of being stuck. But the good news is that God never fails. Each day that we are stuck at home, each day that we spend at home, with our families or roommates or even just with ourselves, God is always there. God’s compassion for us, God’s faithfulness to us, and God’s love for us are new every morning.

God is gracious and comforting and loving. Some days, I feel this more than others, I wake up and I’m just so thankful for the ways God is getting me through this. I hope over the next day you can take some moments to reflect on God’s faithfulness. And to reflect on the love of God throughout this time period.

My prayer is that you remember his faithfulness. Remember his goodness. He is the same whether we are living our lives as we typically have done, or whether we are staying at home. God remains the same, he will never change. And he can handle our frustrations, our anger, and our complacency – all of which I have been guilty of especially during this time. But God doesn’t change. He loves us just the same every single day – yesterday, today and tomorrow.

May you take a few moments to reflect on that as you go about your day. I’ll be praying for you, church family. I love you, I miss you. And hopefully I’ll see you very soon.