Coming Home To Christ

When we come to Christ we come home. We cross over a great divide and the course of our life changes in a glorious new direction. We enter the pathway of true life. We realize the Truth about life, good, evil, love, and lostness. In some ways, it is only when we come into the Light of Christ that we realize how lost and desperate we were—how dark that darkness was and is.

It's like we were traipsing along our blind pathway and someone came to us and said “You know this road is not going in a good direction.” And we had already hit some pretty bad bumps, gotten some bruises of the heart, etc. so a miracle happened and we listened, and turned onto a new pathway—the pathway of the Love of Christ. And this pathway took us up a winding mountain, and at some point we could look down and see where our old path was taking us. And we were horrified! The old path was full of pitfalls, poisonous spiders, snakes, & camouflaged traps. It was littered with the bones of those who didn't make it out. Some were caught in the traps and webs of the evil one. All the people were miserable, constantly arguing and blaming each other, stealing and killing, using and taking advantage of one another. And the pathway ended at a cliff, falling into a pit of endless fire. From where we stand on this mountain looking down, we are tremendously relieved and joyful that we took the path of Christ. We realize that we would have died, not only physically, but spiritually—the death of the young man in the pig pen before he woke up to Reality. Christ is Reality! He said it Himself: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me.” Jn14:6.

Then we look again and we see some of our loved ones traipsing along that dangerous old path. We try to warn them. But they think we are too religious or old fashioned or conservative or restrictive. We may even plead with them, but it just makes them feel uncomfortable; and so they travel on. But we cannot go with them, no matter how much we love them. We are on a different path, going in a different direction. Sometimes they are angry and judgmental of us for not "loving" them they way they want to be "loved", but we realize their way will never work for them--something they cannot yet see from within the darkness. We do not blame them or argue with them. But we are following the Lord of all creation, the Lord of Life and eternity, and we can not allow any human to pull us away from the Pathway of Life. It would not help them, and it would be catastrophic for us. So Jesus said that He brings a sword to separate fathers from sons, mothers from daughters, brothers and sisters from each other. (Matthew 10:34-37) He does this--not us! Our desire is unity for the entire human family. But we follow in the Way of Christ, not of man or the world. If we have a loved one who is walking in the lostness of the world and who will not repent, they are walking in a different direction than we can allow ourselves to walk. So we do our best to sow good seeds of Truth in them, hoping they will take root and grow in them at some point, and we continue on in Christ's Way, with some sadness in our hearts--a sadness that we can feel fading in the eternal joy and peace of the heavenly existence that Christ promised, and is fulfilling in us. The peace that only He can give. The peace of knowing, with fading doubt, that we have come home and we are going home. And we will not fail to make it all the way.