A QUESTION

“Now, it’s number 16 in your homework,” our Bible study facilitator said, looking around our circle of twelve women to see whether a hand would be raised. One tentative hand went up and a soft voice gave a brief answer that I couldn’t quite hear. The question with its small space in which to write a statement, was “What does Christ mean to you?”

Six words to reply to, and yet they opened up a very large consideration; so much so that when I first read it I wondered why any other questions had been asked because this one contained them all. But I concluded that a condensed answer of just a few words could be a fine exercise. So I had written, “Take God seriously. He loves us greatly, but His justice and wrath against sin and its destruction command our awe, even as we love Him and trust Him with grateful hearts.”

By the time I was ready to decipher what I had written, we were on to the next question. And I wondered: next month or next year, how would I answer then? Oh! Maybe I should have said, “Take God seriously. Christ is the only true basis of Reality. All other ways are Man’s ways and lead to deception.”

Or, maybe better, “His Truth and Light are Reality. Unbelievers and the ungodly are vulnerable to deception and insanity. They haven’t a compass to guide them through evil to good.” Or? Well, that’s enough for now. Maybe next year I’ll try again.

Meanwhile I’ll just keep trying to be a witness by living the best life as a Christian that I can manage to be, given my particular limitations as well as gifts. While living at this transitional time in history, all of us are facing the global scene, and life is getting harder and harder: much harder for those who haven’t accepted the Gospel yet. There’s always the hope of being able to introduce someone to the Gospel in some unexpected manner.

All believers are in this together and we know that our true citizenship is not in this world but in Heaven; and we all share hope. Amen.

But our citizenship is in Heaven. (Philippians 3:20, NIV)