After several wonderful, lengthy trips this year, we are finally home for a few months. All my life I had hoped I would be able to do a lot of traveling, though little did I know how incredibly exhausting it can be. Even if I dismiss the physical wear and tear we endured, there were concerns about tickets, connections, passports, luggage limits, foreign currency, etc - just to name a few off the top of my head.

While I have memories, (and pictures), which will forever remind me of our unique experiences, I have traveled afar but left no mark or record of my visit.

Indeed. Whomever I met in these foreign lands have long since forgotten me, as I brought them nothing special that they should have paid any more than superficial attention to me. I doubt anyone even remembers my name!

How travel has changed. Two thousand years ago, travelers had no need for passports. Luggage was limited to what they could carry. There was no such thing as worry over "making connections". Take Christ for example. Other than as an infant, (when Mary and Joseph fled with Him to Egypt - Matt. 2: 13 - 15), Jesus never traveled more than a day’s journey from His home, (approximately 8 miles).

But from this point on, our overlapping comparison ends. While my presence was soon forgotten, Christ’s was not. His notoriety and His reputation both preceded and followed Him in His travels. He healed the sick, (Luke 9: 2), made the lame walk, (Acts 3: 6 - 7) and even brought the dead back to life, (John 11: 1 - 44). Masses of people not only remembered Him, but believed that He was a special person, the incarnate Son of God, as proved by His miracles, (Matt. 8: 1 - 17).

Unlike me, He brought a message of good news, the Gospel, which was to spread from the small area around Galilee to all the world, (Matt. 25: 18 - 25). The establishment of His church and its message of salvation have, more than any one single event in the history of mankind, had an immense impact on this world. And we know there will come a day when all the living and the dead will hear His name, recognize it, and "…at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow…every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…", (Phil. 2: 10 - 11).

I know I left no such mark. No man, but one, has done that!

We at Blake’s Chapel Advent Christian Church look forward with great anticipation to that day. Come worship with us as we exalt His name.

Dan Ligotti