Keys

“‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’

Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’

Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’”—Matt 16: 15-19

This was Jesus’ commissioning of Peter, to be the leader of Christ-followers to the Jews. I can imagine Peter feeling excited but at the same time a bit intimidated by the commission. What an important task to tackle!

And yet, we have all more or less been commissioned by Christ to lead, to spread His love and His gospel. It is a very scary job!

But He does not give us this job empty handed—we have keys. We have the Bible, God’s love letter to us, His words revealing to us who He is and how much He cares for us, each and every one. He is available, 24/7, through prayer and meditation. And we have Him in each other, as we support and love each other, working for His kingdom. 

Following Christ and pointing others to Him can be scary, but does not have to be, with the keys He has given us. May we all use these keys wisely and frequently.

This is my big fat key that also functions as the car remote. Pretty cool, eh? But it’s not as advanced as my last key. That one was for a newer car, and I just had to have the key present in the car somewhere—anywhere—and then push a button to turn the car on. For several weeks, *that* key was really scary. I kept losing it bc I didn’t have an actual place for it. Sometimes it was in my purse, other times somewhere on the passenger seat, other times in the cupholder. Technology can be freaky.