Christians live with the tension in the variety of God’s gifts.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“God in his kindness gave each of us different gifts.”
Romans 12:6a God’s Word to the Nations

This is a closeup picture of a larger sandstone formation. I’m not sure what forces have been at work on this piece of Lyon’s Sandstone near Glen Eyrie but I love the patterns.

Glenn Eyrie, Colorado Springs, Colorado

My imagination conjures up interesting images when I gaze at this picture. What do you see? I see deer prints, a pigs nose and an aspen leaf. You probably see something different.

Though we all cling to the same salvation in Christ Jesus, we all have different gifts and experiences that allow us to see the world differently

My job is not to convince you to see the same things I see in the sandstone. I can tell you what I see and even point it out to you, but it is not my place to convince you that what I see is the only image set in stone.

There is tension in the Christian community between acknowledging the one way to the Father through Jesus Christ and the variety of perspectives with which the baptized see the world. We don’t usually like tension so we try to resolve it by convincing other people that our vision is correct.

Instead of resolving this tension, what if we did something novel? What if we told others what we see, and then listened as they tell us what they see? In the end we’ll grasp the bigger picture of what God is doing in his world through this one gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner