Belonging to church family
David Jones on if our lives go in the wrong direction we need to know the friendship of Jesus
I CAME across a magazine article this week, apparently a true story of a group of tourists who went to Israel some years ago and arrived in Jerusalem very eager to see the sites of the old city.
Four members of the group were so engrossed in taking pictures of each other by the Wailing Wall that they ignored the summons from the tour group leader to go back to the bus.
A little while later, they realised that they were all on their own in Jerusalem. That’s when their problems started.
The four tourists decided to head back to their hotel but no one could remember the exact name of the hotel. So, they hailed a taxi, and asked the driver to drive around Jerusalem as they looked for the hotel.
An hour or so later, the driver gave up and demanded payment. That’s when they discovered that they did not have enough money to pay the driver so the driver took them to the police station.
The police officer requested some identification and that’s when they realised, they had left their passports in the hotel safe. Some hours later, the tour guide tracked down the missing tourists.
They greeted her with tears of relief as she provided the police with their passports, paid their debt, and prepared to lead them safely back to their hotel.
The police gave some parting advice to the tourists: “From now on, stay close to your friend!”
If our lives go in the wrong direction, if we have run up debts of wrong-doing, if we feel lost and alone, we need to know the friendship of Jesus who spoke of a lost sheep who the shepherd retrieves, of a precious piece of jewellery for which the woman swept and turned the house upside down, of a wayward son in a distant land who never realised how much he was loved.
One thing I often pray for is that I be more like that shepherd, more like that woman in her tireless energy, and certainly more like that father in reaching out in love, such unconditional and forgiving love that confounds the arrogance and ‘eye for an eye’ philosophy of the world.
It’s then I give thanks that I belong by faith to the family of the church where I often fail and that he seeks me still and restores me and many like me who know how much we needed to be found.