Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Thank you so much for your concerns and prayers for my family. By God’s grace and your intercessory prayers, I had a blessed time in Korea and got safely back home. I appreciate you all.
Last weekend, the Willowdale young adults went to Camp Frenda for a spiritual retreat. Pastor Inpyo Hong, the associate youth director of the Ontario Conference, was our guest speaker for the weekend. We praised and worshiped the Lord, listened to inspiring messages, and had great fellowship in the beautiful environment and weather. I am so grateful that we have such beautiful young people in our congregation.
In the Bible, God calls young people. We know Joseph, Ruth, David, and Daniel and his friends in the Old Testament. Jesus’ 12 disciples were young people, and so was Mary in the New Testament. Before anyone else, Jesus Himself was a young adult when he performed His public ministries. I hope and pray that the young adults of our church will become faithful workers for the Lord, taking on more and more of the ministries of our church. As David sings in Psalm 110:3, I hope God’s young people will come to Him “like dew from the morning’s womb.” I would like to ask for your prayers for our young adults and the young adult ministry of our church.
In addition, I can’t help but tell you about the total solar eclipse that happened last Monday, April 8th. As soon as I got out of the church staff meeting, I loaded up my family and headed to Burlington to watch the total solar eclipse. The weather was quite cloudy, and the eclipse had already started before we reached Burlington. The sky was still covered in clouds when we arrived not far from Burlington, but thankfully by the time we got to the Pier in Burlington, the sky had cleared, and we had a relatively good view of the eclipse. At that very moment, as the sun came to be completely eclipsed by the moon, an exclamation went up from the crowd gathered on the lakeshore, and in an instant, the surroundings were as dark as the deepest night. It was a splendor like no other I had ever seen in my life.
As I reflected on that dark moment of the total solar eclipse, I came away with one conflicting lesson. Jesus calls us to be the light of the world. However, we are not able to illuminate by ourselves. We can only become the light of the world when we receive light from Jesus and reflect it back. Just as the moon shines on a dark night by reflecting the light of the sun, so we become the light of the world by receiving the light of Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness.
But sometimes, we may unwittingly forget Jesus, the source of light, and act as if we can create our own light. When we preach or teach the Bible, when we lead worship or sing a special song, when we minister in the church or serve the community, we may face the dangers of forgetting Jesus, trust our own ability, and intercept the glory that rightfully belongs to Him. When we do so, we eclipse the Sun of Righteousness like the moon eclipses the sun. Then the world loses light and becomes dark. Yes, the total solar eclipse is truly a sight to behold. But we should take one opposite lesson from it. We should not be reflectors that block their source of light. We should not eclipse His glory. I hope and pray that we, the Willowdale family, will never make such a mistake and be the light of the world, reflecting Jesus’ light and bringing Him all the glory.
Pastor Dae-Eun Kim
Dear Pastor, I am a former member of the Willowdale SDA Chuurch. My family and I enjoyed our time at Willowdale, and it is there that God, through a former pastor, invited me to minister as an ordained elder. I am also a former teacher of CAA. As I read your message re: a lesson from the Eclipse, I was reminded of another very important message conveyed by this remarkable occurrence: sin, heartaches, betrayals, devastation, pains of various sorts and degrees
will come to us in the world of sin. At times it can be frightening and very lonely as we consider our circumstances and surroundings. However, like the moon, which was only able to cover the sun for a brief few moments, even the worst pains and sadness will pass away. In addition, as we continue to have close communion with our Saviour, we will remember and be reminded that (1.),it is only our view that has been obstructed by our suffering,(2.)our Saviour is still Lord of all, (3.)His power to save and work in our lives has not been affected in any way by whatever is plaguing us, and(4.) in time, He will indeed remove the suffering, resolve the issue, and/ or provide the help that we need to do so. We must continue to keep looking up to Him.
God bless you and your family and my brothers and sisters at Willowdale Church.
Thank you Elder Drabik for sharing your insights with us. I really appreciate that. The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon. However, because the moon is 400 times closer to the earth, they appear to be the same size to our eyes. If we focus on our problems and come close to them, they can eclipse our Lord and Saviour Jesus, even though they are even much smaller than Him. Our Lord is bigger than any problem in life. As we look upon Jesus and fix our eyes upon Him, any things in the world cannot bother us I believe. I pray that the Lord will continuously be with you and be seen in your eyes.