Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19 NIV)
Saturday was a transition day as we traveled home from our house at the coast to our house in town. On the way we were blessed to meet with a family that we have known for many years. We had lost contact with them and God brought us back together through the fires. The daughter that we knew as a child and teenager is all grown up and has a teenage daughter of her own. She went through a time in her life that she calls a “hot mess” and it was a joy to hear and see her reconciled to God and living out the new creation in her. We’re not sure where our reconnection is leading but were definitely blessed by the reconnection.
That’s one way to define reconciliation. It is a reconnecting process. We all know about reconnecting since there are so many connected things in our lives. Maybe I think that way because I’m constantly working with computers. Every morning when I get up and turn on my computer I want it to connect with the Internet, so I can get my mail and news for the day. Most days the process happens without me thinking about it, but when it doesn’t work the steps to make it work can be very frustrating.
Relationships are not so simple. Those of us who have a relationship with God tend to take it for granted. Those who don’t have a relationship with God typically have no idea what they’re missing. Those of us who are connected to God have a responsibility to help everyone we can make the same connection. That’s our mission here on earth.
This analogy probably won’t work, but I’m going to try anyway. My desk is still covered with wires, but everything on the network is connected wirelessly. I’d like everything to work that way and I’m confident that someday it will. When I must connect two devices together with a physical cable the freedom of movement of both is restricted. There is a sense in which my connection to God is like the wireless Internet connection. I am free to go where I want and do what I like with God always present. However, the process of reconnecting someone else with God seems to require something more. I think it requires a wired connection. I must be plugged into God in a way that ensures that there are no barriers to my communication with him. I am free to follow him, but I am choosing to be tied to him. I must also plug into the person I’m trying to reconnect to God. It is almost certain that their wireless broadcast is transmitting and receiving on a different channel. I must make a connection that ensures we are speaking the same language on the same channel to ensure that I can hear and understand what they are communicating in hopes that they’ll be able to do the same with what I communicate. Making that connection must be intentional and will limit my freedom. When this works I’ll be tied to them and to God. Ultimately, the goal is to have them choose to receive what God is transmitting and remove the wiring that depends on me in the middle.
Who are you going to connect with in a way that connects them back to God?
To my grandchildren:
I thank God for the new things he is teaching me every day. I’m praying that he will use me to connect to people who need to be reconnected to God.
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