2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.
How many letters do you have in circulation? I hope your children are your letters. Or should I say, I hope your children read the way you want them to be read. They are some of your letters. Your spouse is a letter. Our interactions with our families write our view of Jesus on their lives. If we are harsh or condescending, then that is the image that gets written on them. When I was growing up I remember making a simple box camera to be able to watch a solar eclipse. The pin pushed through the box carefully to produce a nice round hole. Then the white paper was positioned behind it to provide the projection screen. And then we could safely watch the moon pass between the earth and the sun. What a marvel to a young mind. The heavenly bodies were acting out so that I could watch them on my little camera. They were fulfilling one of their purposes, declaring the glory of God. God’s glory was projected on the heavenly bodies so that I could read them and get God’s message. The moon and sun had no choice in the matter. They were the projection screen. The movie being projected was the glory of God. Our families are one of our projection screens. They reflect our true character. That is one of the reasons that church leaders must have their families in order. If they project rebellion onto their kids, then they should not be leading in the church. That does not mean that our kids are our robots, unable to rebel on their own initiative. But it does mean that others can look at our families and see our living out of Jesus in a practical way. Ouch! You mean that I can’t act one way at home and another way in other contexts? That is right. That is because all the projection screens get pulled into a multiplex which is viewed by those who need to see God’s glory, whose lives are falling apart and are searching for answers. If our multiplex screens are previewing chaos, anger, hatred, infidelity, deceit, guile, or double-standard living, they see it and move on to another theater looking for answers. Our lives are letters being written on people’s lives. What do your letters contain?
The Arnold Journey 