You've probably seen them before, a bracelet with coloured beads meant to be prompts to help us share the gospel story; black-sin, red-Jesus' blood, blue-baptism, yellow-streets of Gold representing heaven, and any number of other variations.
My youngest daughter recently made one of these bracelets and the first thing she wanted to do when she got home was share it with her friend on the street. Her friend does not know Jesus and my daughter has begun to share with her a little. My daughter did a great job sharing what she had learned using the bracelet, she wasn't however, expecting as many questions in response.
Her friend, having no exposure to biblical themes had questions as basic and fundamental as:
Who is God?
What is Sin?
What is Baptism?
Who is Jesus?
What is heaven and why are there streets of Gold?
As she struggled to understand these basic building blocks, many of the more abstract concepts such as separation from God remained...well, abstract.
I have been reminded again that as we seek to share with others around us, in an increasingly secular and multi-cultural context we cannot assume anything. Not only should we not assume any basic understanding of the biblical story, we must also be very conscious about the language that we use, recognizing that many of the themes, terms, concepts and words we take for granted really are foreign to the culture around us.
So we take a few steps back, begin at the beginning, recognize that sometimes it is a slower process but continue to faithfully share.
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