Contemplative Bible Reading

Colossians 1:6 (New Living Translation)

6 This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

The Good News that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God sent to the world to take away everyone’s sins for all time was going out all over the world. That Good News bore fruit everywhere in how it changed lives.

Wow. Pretty impressive stuff. I believe this Good News still changes lives. When I sit still and open my eyes and ears, I see and hear it. It is right in front of me all the time. It is universal. Of course there are places where, well, things aren’t so changed (see, for example, Russia and Ukraine). Inside those places, however, there are lives that are changing.

Now, if these folks would just change the way I want them to change… Nope. Wrong. Stupid. God changes folks the way God wants them to change in the time and place of the changing. I don’t decide, I don’t choose, I don’t get to approve. That is good news, too.