Hello,
Driving home from church today, my wife and I got behind a rather beat
up, old, silver Toyota. Because we
were making a small grocery pick-up we took the route that led us through
Greensburg and Latrobe, Route 30…..four lanes with lots of stoplights. Traffic was relatively light, but
somehow we got stuck behind the well-worn car in front of us. As we putted along behind it, I noticed
that it bore reflectors bookjacketting the rear license plate. When I saw them, I said to my wife,
“Maybe I should get those for my car.”
She snickered when she also noticed them, matching reflective silhouettes
of a reclining woman (I have seen them before on the mud flaps of
semi-trucks.). Somehow I don’t
think those reflectors are what I would want to reflect to the world.
Seeing them led me to remember some years ago when our high school youth
were doing an evangelism project (i.e. getting the message of Jesus out), and
the person in charge of the high school youth asked me if I had any ideas for a
magnet that we could have made to put on the kids’ cars and give to the adults
of the congregation to display on theirs.
I thought a moment…mom….what would I want to people who got caught
behind me to catch their eyes? “THERE
IS HOPE”…..that is what I told her.
Who knows….maybe the person behind me may have just lost their
job….maybe they dug a hole for themselves that has gobbled them up….maybe the
person just left the doctor’s office carrying an ominous prognosis….maybe death
has clamped down on them like a spring-rigged trap….maybe they feel their
family crumbling apart in their hands….maybe they have been treated like dirt
by the kids at school….maybe…..”THERE IS HOPE”. No matter what the person in the car behind me might be
dealing with, I would want them to know that THERE IS HOPE.
So, that was the magnet that we had made, and around Sioux Falls people
saw a round magnet with a blue silhouette of the earth, encompassing a cross
and the words THERE IS HOPE written in a large prominent font affixed to the
cars of the youth and adults of our church.
It is not an accident that the Christian church that was centered in the
Northern Hemisphere decided to place the date of Jesus birth (the Bible does
not give us a date) at a time of the year when the shortening days brought more
and more darkness. It was placed
at this time of the year as a perpetual reflection to the world of what
Christianity is about….THERE IS HOPE.
When the Bible, in the Gospel of John, speaks of Jesus’ place in the universe it says speaking of
Jesus, “and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it.”
I
don’t know if those magnets are still catching the eyes of drivers in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota, but no matter where you are in these darkening days of
December I hope that this Bungee Cord has recreated those magnets and placed
them in your vision. And when you
are caught behind some car or truck and all you can see is the trunk of the
vehicle in front of you that amid whatever hopeless reflectors the driver has
placed there you will see what God would want to be reflected into your
vision…THERE IS HOPE.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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