The Value of One

I have spent most of the summers of my adult life teaching the good news of Jesus to hundreds of children.

I usually take huge crates of snacks, chalk, bubbles, and crafts to neighborhoods nearby, and the children gather when they see me coming.

This summer was different.

This summer, I focused on one tiny two-year-old.

Instead of an hour-long Bible story time, I had to give a twenty-four hour-a-day rendition of living a Christ-filled life. (I failed at that, if you were wondering.) 

Instead of doing the VBS song-and-dance, I had to sing a song of praise while tired, facing poo-tastrophes, and having very few moments to myself. (I often failed at this too.) 

Instead of the rewarding spiritual high of having checked the summer missions box, I faced the daily reality of the lows of spiritual warfare and my own inability to make everything okay for a little one living apart from her family. 

But, I wanted to tell you what I learned.

I learned that the Lord cares compassionately and intensely about the one.

He is the Good Shepherd, after all, who left the ninety-nine to go after the one.

He is the loving Father watching longingly for the one He loves to return.

He is the Savior who gave His life to ransom the one.

He asked me to pour myself out for one this summer to remind me that I am the one He poured Himself out for- and He does it so much infinitely better than I ever could! 

The same God who told Abraham to count each grain of sand on the shore and each star in the heavens counts each of us lovingly as His creation and extends to us an invitation to enter the same covenant promise. 

The same God who sent Jesus to be the Cornerstone of a spiritual house offers to include us as living stones in the same building.

The same God who calls Himself our Good Shepherd tends to each of us as His beloved lamb. 

It’s a truth I’ve known for a long time, but the Lord wanted me to learn it by hands-on application this summer. Sometimes, He calls us to minister to and love the one instead of the masses because He cares about each one. 

What if we as Christians ministered to each person, each neighbor, each friend, each stranger as if they were the one? What if instead of the general view we have of taking the Gospel to all nations, we viewed the child in the orphanage in Liberia, the nurse taking our blood pressure, or our husband or wife as the one God is asking us to share the Gospel with- in word and deed- today? 

We may fail in the daily task of being the hands and feet of Jesus, but when we rely on His strength and provision, He is faithful to equip us for the task. 

Through us, He will love the one because we are the ones He loves. 

Find “Mine” the poem shared in the audio version of this article at my substack channel HERE.