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What is in your hands?

In the year AD 57, a young girl stands on the port of Corinth, waiting as her boat is lapped by the vastness of the Mediterranean Sea. Her name is Phoebe and she is the member of the early Corinthian church who has been entrusted with a seemingly menial task, one that unbeknown to her, will echo timelessly through the ages. 

Phoebe wishes love to her family and before she steps onto the boat, she is handed a parchment, the original transcript of a letter by a man named Paul. A letter written to a faithful but hard pressed group of believers to a strange new religion mockingly referred to as Christianity and lovingly known by its followers, as The Way. Phoebe takes what is now known to the modern world as the Book of Romans, and starts her long journey to the city of Rome. Unknowingly protected by the armies of heaven, she carries in her hand the first ever compiled Christian doctrine. A small document that is destined to change the earthly and eternal destiny of billions of people. A document that wars will be waged over, one that will cause the rise and fall of many, a parchment that carries the spiritual blueprint for entry into heaven and the healing of humanity. 

This story is symbolic of the way in which God works. A letter that to Phoebe would have seemed rather unassuming was used by God to form the Christian faith and change the landscape of the world for thousands of years. 

I wonder what is in your hands, what thing do you hold that to you seems small and unimportant in the grand scheme of human existence? Maybe, just maybe, you hold in your hands something of eternal significance. Maybe you hold the same powerful message that Phoebe held and maybe God is destining you for greatness. Maybe God wants to use you to carry this message, to affect the eternal destinies of many. 

No great human leader would ever entrust something of such life altering importance to a young girl in a rickety boat, but God did. Maybe it’s time to stop looking for God’s splendour in the halls of power and start looking for the important in the seemingly unimportant aspects of everyday life.

“What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Luke 18:27.

Sean Nolan

Youth Director - Christian Community Churches NSW.

www.cccaustnsw.com