Editorial November 9, 2015 Issue

The most glorious destination

Barbara Vining

Say you were travelling to a gorgeous natural setting—a place you had dreamed of visiting for a very long time—but all along the way you faced one obstacle after another. But probably the prospect of the destination, and the joyous expectation of reaching it, would keep you going until you arrived. Now think of the glorious destination that was ahead of Jesus and his disciples: his destination was never a place; it was the here-and-now proof that God is Life, the eternal life of man; it was the proof of our present and eternal oneness with Life.

Following the path of Christ Jesus to that destination, that proof, though, has never been all roses, considering the intense opposition the carnal, or mortal, mind can pose to the noble purpose of the mission he handed down to his followers.

Jesus laid out plainly for his disciples what he would face: “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.” And then he made very clear what would be required of any person who would follow him: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:22, 23). It would not be an easy life.

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