A Life-changing Encounter

A Life-Changing Encounter

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John 1:1-5

At age twenty-nine I found myself asking, like the old Peggy Lee song, “Is that all there is?” I’d done everything I thought would bring happiness: married, had children, earned my graduate degree, lived in a cute redbrick house with white shutters on a pleasant street. I’d made a commitment to Christ when I was twelve, and we went to church weekly, but God seemed more like a distant relative than an intimate friend, and I had an empty place inside that none of the wonderful things and people in my life had filled. One day while my toddler boys napped, I combed through the bookcase, looking for something I hadn’t read. Finally my hand hit upon a dusty New Testament I’d used in a college class. I hadn’t read that book in a long time.

I sat down on the couch and began to read the first few pages of Matthew as rain splashed on the window beside me. After Matthew, I tackled Mark and Luke, page by page, chapter by chapter, day after day as I’d read so many textbooks before. Several weeks later, I started the book of John: “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As I read those words, the eyes of my heart were renewed, and Christ’s light permeated the room. As unbelief and doubt melted away, I soaked in the truth on the page: that the Word is Jesus, and he has been with God from the very beginning. He created everything, and nothing was created except through him. In him, in Jesus, is life, and his life is the light of all humanity. Christ came to bring light to my darkness as well. Because of this life-changing encounter with Jesus, I have never been the same. I began a spiritual journey and adventure that has continued to this day, thirty years later. —CHERI

Lord Jesus, you are so creative and individual in the ways you come to us and reveal yourself. Grant me intimate encounters with you in the days and weeks ahead.

Our Savior lives, and if we let it happen, if we accept his presence, our lives will be changed forever. —JIMMY CARTER, THIRTY-NINTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES