Saints! saints everywhere! the Bride of Christ…

Many of our friends in the blogosphere know Yudhie Kristanto, our brother in Indonesia, and have visited his blog Heartbeat, which he has closed for now, wanting a fresh start. You can, of course, still return there and read his earlier posts (many of them are wonderful poems), but for the new year he's opened a new window on his life in Christ, humbly calling it Daily Jottings. Yudhie is an Orthodox Christian student finishing his last year at Universitas Pelita Harapan in Tangerang, Banten, near Jakarta. After his graduation in June, he will be a mathematics teacher in a Christian school yet to be assigned. Last year he spent a few months as a student teacher in Pontianak on the island of Kalimantan, where he practiced his future job and became a beloved teacher to his pupils.

In his second post at Daily Jottings he describes a visit to the home of one of his lecturers, Ms Enid of Australia. This is how he describes her…

She is very kind and merciful. There will be no regret after staying with her and listen to her wisdom and faith in the Lord! Indeed it's really great! She's just back from Adelaide to serve God here in Indonesia. She told us that her trip was very nice. Then she asked us if we have any needs to be prayed for, and thus she blessed us with her kindness and spiritual truth. One line which dropped into my heart went like this, "Pray. Keep praying and trust God! He knows us best. Trust Him! And when your struggle is over, say 'Thank you, Lord', whatever the result is".

During his visit with her, she presented him with a very special gift, a Russian bible. She is obviously a Christian; she knows that Yudhie is also a Christian, and one who is of the Orthodox faith, and she also knows that he is teaching himself Russian, as the Indonesian Church is under the supervision of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Here they were, Yudhie and his fellow students, all of them Christians attending a Christian college in a Muslim-majority nation, all of them belonging to various denominations, yet there is no dispute, no distinction between any of them, only the sign that Christ Himself said would distinguish His disciples from the people of the world: their love for one another.

How is this love expressed? By simple fellowship. By unselfconscious sharing of what each has been granted by the Lord. Yes, they know about each other, where they come from, what churches they go to, but the words and acts of love that pass between them, without motive, innocent as doves, prove the words of Jesus, prove the Word of God to be true, ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another’ (John 13:34-35).

Their visit and fellowship together was a kairós moment, an ‘acceptable time,’ a ‘day that the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it’ moment, a fragment taken out of chrónos time and placed in God's eternity. It was a manifestation of the Church, of the Body of Christ. It was a fleeting moment made everlasting by becoming an ikon of life in the Holy Triad.

Does all of this sound like I'm exaggerating a bit? that I am making too much of a short, informal visit? Does it seem that I am painting it in imaginary colors?

Well, it may seem that way, but this is the reality of life in Christ, who wastes no opportunity to come and be among us, in places no matter how small, at times no matter how short. He is the Almighty, and so size makes no difference to Him.

And yes, the saints! the saints are everywhere! Where the Lord is, there is the Bride of Christ…