I try to have at least one conversation a day with someone
who doesn’t know Jesus. These are simple conversations about life, rarely do
they slip into conversations of faith, but through these I am continually challenged
in the ways I see the world and understand truth.
A couple months ago I met a man named Teddy. I brought him a cup of coffee and introduced myself. We started talking about where we grew up, where we were hoping to go, and our plans for the day. He told me his hope was that I would have seven kids. I laughed and asked why, what would I do with seven kids? His smile widened again, “teach them to share.” He nodded and walked away, pushing his possessions in a grocery cart.
That phrase has been rolling through my mind nearly everyday; teach them to share, what does sharing mean to Teddy?
Perhaps his definition is acts of sharing things, cups of coffee. Or perhaps it is closer to the idea of sharing oneself, one’s experiences and stories with one another in these brief moments of interaction.
I like to think of this sharing as a combination, the creation of a community marked by both the sharing of the material and the immaterial. A community marked by generosity and grace. A community of people marked by their love and care for one another. This community began to sound familiar. This sounds like the church described in Acts 2, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need… praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number day by day.”
And in my reflections on this conversation I am reminded the extent to which our hearts are calibrated to the God who created us, that in our nature, while we may put whatever trendy, or simplistic language to it, is a desire to live in accordance to the Kingdom.
Haley
