This directive from a mountain in Galilee was a global “go” from Jesus to His eleven disciples. Because they didn’t run from the “Great Commission”—deciding it was too risky or they had more practical things to do—I can know and follow Jesus two millennia later.
Our grandson Caleb, while in high school, agreed to a summer Teen Missions International short-term mission trip to Taiwan—completing work projects, sharing Christ, building friendships. An introvert, he told me, “I knew I didn’t want to go the moment I signed up.” But he braved it.
Caleb is now twenty-one; he is on staff with TMI, has been to Zambia, and is just returning from six weeks in Australia. He never imagined himself in these places—and neither did I!
My aunt traveled by ocean liner to China in 1931 to bring the Good News. And my great-grandfather was a circuit rider in the 1880s, trekking on horseback to preach in rural Missouri churches.
Me—I’m just the grandma, the niece, the great-granddaughter. But I have my place. I pull my binoculars from my spiritual go-pack and scope my family’s trail behind and before. Waymarks for following Jesus were laid for me long ago so that I could also mark the trail for the ones to come. God opens my eyes to see how faith in His Son becomes a heritage that carries for generations. And I feel invigorated for the path ahead. Ready to carry the Good News of Jesus into the future.
Father, through my faith binoculars, let me clearly see how as I go You “enlarge my steps under me” (Psalm 18:36, NASB).
—Carol Knapp
