What really matters.

I'm posting this story here, because it is a good reminder of the one constant truth that binds all Christians. Sometimes I feel worn down by divisions over certain issues and the fact that I feel I need to come to a decision on certain things. Jesus' death and resurrection trumps it all. I love perspective.

From Tara's note:

Taken from "Views From A Bouncy Castle" by Adrian Plass. This short story makes me smile, and wish that like children, we could be as easy to teach, correct and rebuke.

"Much more than recently, in the year when Katy became three, I strolled into the garden one sparkling April morning, to find my diminutive daughter pushing one arm up as far as it would go towards the sky. In her outstretched hand was a single bluebell, newly picked from the border beside the lawn. As she offered her flower to the shining early sun, she identified it with loud ecstasy.

"DAFFODIL!!" she shouted, "DAFFODI-I-IL!!"

I am as tediously obsessed with accuracy as most parents. I corrected her gently.

"No darling," I said. "It's a bluebell."

Not one inch did she reduce the length of her stretching arm, not one decibel did she lower her volume: "BLUEBELL!" she shouted, "BLUEBE-E-ELL!"

Katy's joy was in being part of the morning and having a beautiful flower, not in anything so trivial as being right. She accepted my pedantic correction, but it didn't change anything important.

If only those of us who are Christians wer more like Katy in the garden, less concerned with how right we are in our individual emphases and dogmas than with the joy of being one with Jesus.

"YOU HAVE TO SPEAK IN TONGUES TO BE A CHRISTIAN!" one of us might shout ecstatically.

"No, you don't," God might correct us gently.

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPEAK IN TONGUES TO BE A CHRISTIAN!" we would shout with undiminished joy."