Take a look at this picture of our new Melissa UMC building at sunset. Do you notice how the lights in the tower look a bit like a lighthouse or a beacon? I have stood on this property countless times in the last 7 years. For the first 5 years of my ministry in Melissa and McKinney, the vision of that building against a sunset sky sometimes seemed more like a dream than God’s vision that would some day be reality. Yet, here we are.
Hope is watching children gather in this building and speak to the truth of God’s love for them, which is greater than they can imagine. Hope is youth gathered for games in the yard or Bible study in the commons. Hope is the group that gathered even this week to sit and read the Bible over their lunches as we learned together. The Church will always be so much more than a building, but this building is an important tool for God’s work in Melissa and surrounding areas.
Maybe that is what is giving me the most hope in these days on the heels of a pandemic as our lives begin to regain a sense of normalcy… Hope is God’s people as they gather, again and again and again.
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.” – Jesus, Matthew 18:20
Blessings,
Pastor Stacey