When the Sinner Meets the Savior...

It was just a normal school night, dinnertime, and the table was being set. I am but an only child living with my mom for my father died years ago, before I was born. My mother told me that we were going to be having company over tonight and that I should set the table for three. I was weary at first because I was shy and didn't talk much, and wasn't to fond of the idea of having to eat with someone I have never met. But, I still set the table for three, unaware of who the guest was that will be dining with tonight.

My mind began to wonder who my mom had met this time. Was it someone from work, from the store, some guy she met at my soccer game. I was unsure until I remembered how much time she had been spending at the some place called church. It was unsettling with me, the thought of having some crazy Christian man dating my mother. Who knows what he will convince her to think. Well okay, it sounded better than her dating some of the guys she had seen, I didn't think it could get much worse after that round with the guy she met on the street.

My life after school consisted of a few things. Soccer practice at 3:00. Piano practice at 4:00 only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Any other day I just hung out with Jared, my friend of 8 years. Every night though I was always home by 5:30 in which I would spend the rest of my time up until supper doing homework and catching up on the latest of the happenings in our small town on the local news. I thought it was striking that my mother had not began to bake supper as it was nearing 6:30, the time in which we usually dined.

My mother opened the bread drawer and pulled out a new loaf of bread, tossed it to me and told me to set it on the table. I did so only to return to the kitchen to see my mother open a brand new bottle of wine. I was beginning to wonder what kind of meal she had in mind. She went into the dining room and sat down at the table only to peer at me with the kind of look that I took as, “Well, aren't you going to sit down too?”

I sat down and asked my mother, “Are we not going to wait for our company to show up?”

She looked up at me and said, “He is already here son.”

“Mom are you going mad” I asked

At that time she bent over and pulled from under her chair a book. A really big book. She opened it to a page around half way through. By this time I was lost, we are having supper (bread and wine) with a man that is not even here, and my mom is planning on reading to me from a book that I have never seen before starting from the middle? Like I said I was lost.

“Son have you ever wondered why we are put on this earth?” She asked in a soft, questioning tone. “Have you ever asked yourself, 'isn't there more to this life than just going through the motions,' have you son?”

“Mom, what are you trying to say?”

“I am saying that there is more to this life than all what is seen, the unseen is what I am getting at.” She was getting excited now. “Something worth living for!”

“I guess it has crossed my mind a few times.”

“Then if there is any question left in your mind, then hear this story.”

That night she read to me the story of Jesus. All the way from the beginning, his birth, all the way to his death, his death on the cross. After hearing how emotional my mother was about this story I knew that it was not just another story. It was history, the present, and the future. It all made sense to me. From that day on I made the choice to follow Jesus. I am still learning from him everyday. I am seeing that I am not just a sinner. I am a friend, a child, the bride of Christ.