Matthew 28 - Pass it on - AYWJ 07

One of the joys of being a parent is seeing the ways that our children take on some of what my wife and I love. There are things like the geekiness of our family (Star Wars, Harry Potter, BSG, etc) but there are deeper things as well. One of those is our daughter’s love of photography. She has enjoyed photography for several years now but in the last year or so she’s really taken to it. Recently she just bought her first camera with money she had been saving up and she took this shot the other day while out on a walk with Scout and the rest of the family. When I saw the shot, I was truly taken aback at it - the framing, the colors she edited into it, the cropping down to the essentials in the pic. But even more so is the emotion I feel in the shot. It is just a tremendous shot in my opinion. Proud dad moment...

The last words in the Gospel of Matthew are about passing things on. Matthew 28 tells this Gospel’s story of the resurrection and several appearances of Jesus. But the final one, on a mountaintop is Jesus passing it on. Passing on the gift (and responsibility) of sharing and living the story and teachings. In verses 19-20, Matthew records Jesus as saying:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

We over complicate this too much. It feels scary to share our faith. But in reality it starts with living it and sharing the experiences of faith. My daughter’s love of photography may have some innate aspect to it but it also came out of watching her dad take shot after shot and also inviting her to come along and share the experience. So it is with sharing our faith - it is us living it and inviting others into the experience. I am grateful for those who passed the faith along to me and I am grateful for the ways that I have been able to pass it along to others.