A Child's Question

I get the Readers Digest which describes itself as the worlds Biggest magazine with 50 editions in 50 languages. I have been getting this magazine for more years than I care to remember, and mainly now just  zoom to the 'laughter is the best medicine' section and read no further. (memo to self - stop subscription next year).

OK. I do read other bits and I noticed yesterday 22nd October 2011 in the May edition of the Readers Digest (I know I am a bit behind with my reading) in a section called 'Books that Changed my Life' there was a piece written by a British comedian and writer called Richard Herring and one of the books that he had chosen was the New Testament.

However, even before I started to read in detail as to why the New Testament had helped change Mr Herrings life, I knew from the introduction to this man that he was not because he got saved, nor had he found the real purpose for his life.  Anyone who was doing a stand-up comedy tour around the UK entitled 'Christ on a Bike' would only be using the Lords name and Christianity to aid his laughs. (I did go to his website and it is much worse than I can even write about, but you can easily come to the conclusion that Richard is a committed atheist with a passion for mocking Christ's followers). The Lord himself fares much better than His followers and Mr Herring compares the Lord to the Fonz - a cool guy.

Now Richard is nobody's fool (in the eyes of the world) and as a son of a headmaster went on to be educated at Oxford University. When he was eight he said that he noticed a 'discrepancy' on the first page of the New Testament' about the genealogy of Jesus, which shows that he is related to David and Abraham via Joseph. Apparently he said to his mother that if the Holy Spirit was the Lord's father then he could'nt be related to them. He states that from that moment on he wondered if any of the things he had been told were true.

He did go on to say that there is some great things in the Bible that can have an enormous influence on you, even of it's to define yourself as an atheist. So this event apparently opened new perspectives on the world for Richard, in a lot of positive ways according to the article. This positive way turns out to be in him 'losing a religion'.

This prompted me to ask:

• Was / are his mother and father practising Christians? There was a Bible in the home in his early youth!
• Why could his mother not answer the child's question?
• If she did not know the answer did she try to get Richard to talk to someone who could answer the question?

I was prompted to think about:

• The impact on a young life through ignorance of what the Bible actually says about the Lord's birth
• The eternal impact on a life, a soul that is going to be judged by the Lord himself.
• A need to respond to that question posed by Richard many years ago.

With the Lord's guidance over the coming days / weeks or however long it takes,  I will attempt to answer the question posed by Richard to his mother many years ago.

My prayer is that somehow, in someway Richard Herring will come to know the Lord as his own personal saviour and learn that Christianity is not about either losing or gaining a religion, but gaining Jesus. Knowing that Jesus Christ is alive and well and loves Richard Herring. It's all about relationship with the living God NOT religion.

Finally ......................... a thought for today

Our greatest privilege is to enjoy God's presence