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 The Bridge

Have you ever walked across a bridge?  

When I lived in NYC, I loved walking and biking over bridges because I felt as if I was being transformed into a new place with new people and things.  I could look up at the sky, underneath at the waves and boats, or at the people that passed.  Noticing all these people and places allowed me to appreciate the world I live in. 

Moving from one place to another also allowed me to understand how I am called to grow, move, and encounter others.  If I never crossed a bridge, how will I ever know? How will I ever grow?

Jesus, the Bridge

Jesus is that bridge.  He is the way to a new place where we will meet new people and do new things.  A bridge is a perfect metaphor because it brings two places together.  Jesus did that.  He brought the old and the new together.  He brought people from darkness to light, from sin to mercy, and from despair to hope.  
Jesus announces his mission (bridge) in Luke's Gospel 4:18-19:


Crossing is a choice

Crossing a bridge requires making a choice.  You have to want to walk, run, skate, or bike across the bridge. You can do it in many ways.  You can.
Believing in Jesus is similar.  It is a choice that you have to make.  It will be challenging because it will require a change.  A change in your mind, heart and soul.  

Crossing will require something new from you: for you to grow, to see and treat people and things in a new way, with love and forgiveness.  Like Jesus, you will be called to transform so you can help transform others.

Believing in Jesus is also a gift, a grace, from God.  There are many gifts while crossing a bridge: the wind that blows, the sun and clouds above, the people you find, or the feelings and ideas you experience. Know that gifts are one of many ways that God shows his love for you and me.  

Connection

Bridges are built to connect places because we want to bring people, places and things together.  God wants to connect with us, to love us,  and that is why He sent Jesus.  Jesus is the bridge, the way, to connect with God.
You have to get on that bridge and cross in order to know, love, and serve.


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