I commend to you our sister Phoebe . . . (Romans 16:1).
It was a cold snowy day in Amman, Jordan. Our flight was to be the first flight out that morning. We sat on the plane for nearly two hours while the crew attempted to de-ice the plane to prepare it for flight; the plane had about two inches of snow on it. To me the plane looked the same after their de-icing attempts as before, but the flight crew decided it was time to fly. The plane taxied to the runway and readied for take-off. The big jet engines roared when the pilots throttled up for take off. The big Boeing 747 was lumbering down the runway carrying the weight of the snow as well as spoiling the air flow over the wing; it was taking longer than usual for the plane to lift off. I noticed one of the stewardesses was as anxious as I was as she made the sign of the cross on herself. I immediately felt kinship with her as she, in her sign, expressed faith in the same One in whom I believe.
I thought of this incident as I heard of the massacre of Christians in an Iraqi church. While there are doctrinal differences of faith that are important, these people died for their faith in Christ--that makes them kin of mine. Carl Ketcherside, one of my spiritual heroes when I was a young minister, used to say, 'I would rather be wrong about including a person as a brother or sister is in this life than to arrive in heaven and find that I had wrongly excluded them.' To live as a committed Christian in a muslim nation is difficult!!! The little stewardess was not ashamed of her faith in Christ, so there is a kinship that is meaningful to me to this day.
The family of God is found in every nation and every race and every tongue. What a wonderful day it will be when we are all at home together.
Our Father's Blessings,
Tom
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1 comment:
Dr. Steele, I think you are getting a little sappy in your old age. She might have made the sign of the cross only for good luck.
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