Follow the Promise in Chalk

When Julie and Tim told me over the summer that the fall sermon series was “Follow the Promise,” tracing the lineage of Jesus, I knew I wanted to turn the letters of “promise” into stories from that lineage for the sanctuary chalkboards. As I brainstormed and revisited stories where biblical characters followed God’s promise, I was struck by how they were all so very much in the middle of their own stories, and the story, God’s story.

Here's what the letters in PROMISE show:

The P represents Noah. God commanded him to build a giant boat in the middle of the desert with nary a drop of rain. He was taunted and ridiculed with no storm in sight. But Noah trusted God, trusted His promise, and his family was preserved.

The R represents Isaac, Abraham’s long-promised son and heir. God instructed Abraham to take Isaac up to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to God. Isaac wasn’t coming back from that hike, yet Abraham trusted God’s promise, and God provided a ram in Isaac’s place. Through Isaac, God fulfilled His promise that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

The O shows Moses and the Red Sea. The Israelites had just escaped harsh slavery under the Egyptians when Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after them. There they were, all the men, women, children, and animals, with the Egyptians closing in. But God said, watch this, parted the sea, got everyone safely to the other side, and showed the Egyptians and the Israelites who was boss.

The M displays the Ten Commandments. Israel was newly freed from the Egyptians, and God set forth a covenant with them, engraving them in two tablets. Moses carried the tablets down the mountain and found the Israelites worshipping a golden calf they had constructed. We look at the story and shake our heads because God had just rescued them. It’s easy to lose your way in the middle of the story. Yet God kept his covenant with Israel and brought them to the promised land.

The I shows a wall of Jericho with Rahab’s window and scarlet rope. Rahab, a disgraced woman, took a huge risk to protect and hide the Israelite spies in her home. She followed the promise of a God she didn’t yet know. In turn, Rahab and her family were spared when God gave Israel the city, and she became part of the fabric of Jesus’ family.

The S is the serpent from the story of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve had everything but chose to disobey God and lost the Garden of Eden, along with introducing sin into the world. Yet the fall became part of God’s plan for redemption, the ultimate promise.

400 years of radio silence from God occurred between the Old and New Testaments. The promise seemed out of reach; the middle stretched on forever.

The E represents Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem along with the star the wise men followed. Mary, visited by the angel and not really understanding, acknowledged and followed the promise, even while thinking she’d probably be dumped by Joseph and left to fend for herself. Her uncertainty in the middle of the story, and her willingness to follow the promise, led to her becoming the mother of the Messiah.

And then there’s Jesus. To the world, He was a simple carpenter. He was rejected and hung on a cross. All hope seemed lost to His followers. But it wasn’t the end; it was just the middle of the story. Three days later, what looked like the finale became the greatest beginning of all.

The “promise” chalkboard hangs in front of the cross because the cross is the ultimate promise to each of us. The dove representing the Holy Spirit hangs behind the “follow” chalkboard because the Holy Spirit guides each of us as we live in the messy middle following the promise.

Following the promise doesn’t mean the middle isn’t chaotic, messy, or confusing. If you’re reading this, that means you woke up today, and your story isn’t over. Keep looking for the hand of God even when you can’t see the whole picture. The middle is a holy, sacred place. It’s where faith grows, where character is built, where God shapes us, where our story blesses others, where the ordinary becomes the extraordinary. He is working, even when you can’t see it. The Author is still writing your story. He isn’t finished yet. And, spoiler alert, because of Jesus, it has the BEST ending.