As the year 2020 finally comes to a close, we are grateful to see it go. It was a long year, longer than most!. For those who follow Tammy Tkach’s blog (there is a link in this webpage) you may remember that she has had a tradition to prayerfully choose a word for the year rather than make New Year’s Resolutions. And this word helps her to focus on Jesus and her walk with Him through the year. Her word for the year 2020 was ‘unfazed’. I must say that for this year we have just lived through, that was an incredibly appropriate word as there were many things to faze us through the months, but we do indeed walk with the One who is always unfazed.
Although we have each had to live with varying restrictions through the year, we have also been blessed to be able to connect in new ways—able to join in with congregations, friends, near and far by video link. And in November we had the Ladies Linkup where we were connected and able to share with one another from all across Australia and countries throughout our region. We would like to thank you for your responses to that evening—the chat messages were an encouragement to us and it was apparent that many of you really enjoyed and felt uplifted to be together with women around the country and in Fiji and New Zealand as well. Women, it is said, often find the connections and the sharing with other women to be a necessary part of our lives. And natural though it may be to us, it is also an organic part of our growth individually in Christ and as a part of His Body. We are built for relationship with Jesus and through Him, with others. This interconnectedness is at the heart of our journey with Him. We are meant to build one another up, share our journeys. The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:10-12 has been trying unsuccessfully to get to Rome to build up their faith in the Gospel, to help them know Jesus as the ultimate Gift. So he has never met them, but he writes: “I ask him (God) to clear the way for me to come and see you. The longer this waiting goes on, the deeper the ache. I so want to be there to deliver God’s gift in person and watch you grow stronger right before my eyes! But don’t think I’m not expecting to get something out of this, too. You have as much to give me as I do to you.” This is how the body works—by mutual sharing of our lives and relationship with Jesus, the Spirit sees to it that all are edified.
As we celebrate the human coming of the greatest Gift, Jesus—we are so thankful that He grows us up into Himself, and gifts us each other to grow with!
-Ruth Matthews