Illustration
Illustration
by Janice W. Hearn

John 3:1-17

....For Nicodemus, also, this was no one-time choice to follow Jesus. Not just a decision made one night at the Billy Graham crusade. Consider the metaphor which Jesus uses, the idea that one must be born from above or to be born anew of the Spirit. That alone tells us that it is no one-time, set in cement, choice. The baby still has to grow up. In the New Testament way of thinking, the pilgrimage becomes a spiritual one. This is a journey which Nicodemus had to make, an inner passion to follow after Jesus Christ, a seeking after God which became the directive force of his life from that time on.

The stories define the Christian life for us. Simply to be Christian means we must be on the road, always and forever on a journey, a pilgrimage toward our final home with God.

In a sense, we are all like the goat lady in the novel Cold Mountain. As the wounded Civil War soldier makes his way through the back roads and hills toward home, he stops to stay for a while with a goat lady. She lives in what was then called a "caravan," apparently some sort of wagon which was a fore-runner of the modern day camper trucks and motor homes. In order to survive, the goat lady sells cheese and trades the goats for flour and other necessities when her herd gets too large to handle. After a good sleep and a meal, the soldier asks the goat lady why she lives in the caravan. Is she traveling? Does she move continually from one place to another? How long has she lived in this place?

The goat lady goes to her cupboards and gets out her journals, books in which she has recorded the antics and habits of the goats over the years. Finally, she finds the pages which record her early days in this place. And she says, "I’ve lived here for 26 years now. No, it is 27 years, since I came here." The hero asks, "Why do you continue to live in this caravan, if you’ve been here so long? Why don’t you build a more permanent place?"

The goat lady responds: "One never knows when it is time to move on. I always have to be ready to get on the road again."

And, that dear friends, is the story of the Christian life. It is no one-time decision. It is no simple act of obedience. It is a lifelong journey, an inner passion that grips at our hearts and compels us and urges us to get up and to keep on moving. To keep on searching and seeking for the place where God will lead us, the place where our souls will be made whole, the place where we will finally feel "at home" with ourselves and with God.

(from www.goodpreacher.com/blog/)