I have struggled with the different beliefs among Christians for some time.  I guess it has always made me feel confused.  How can we all have so many different ideas about what it means to be a Christian?  One denomination believes dancing is a sin, while another knows how to get down in the name of Jesus.  Some feel women should not preach, others believe Christianity is equal opportunity.  One denomination is ritual and orderly while another is free flowing and casual.  There are so many different ideas, but only one Jesus.  

In my quest for the capital T Truth, meaning God’s Truth, I have learned a few things.  First, there is an enemy who seeks to divide and conquer.  That is probably the biggest obstacle of all.  The enemy hates unity.  Also, even though the Bible is the infallible word of God, it is subject to translation and interpretation by human flesh. 

So, one day as I was struggling with these differences, God gave me a picture.  I am going to try to explain that picture in words.  To begin with there is a circle.  That circle is the TRUTH, or God’s Truth.  Coming out of the circle are many lines.  It looks like the 2-dimensional drawing of the sun that children often make in artwork.   These lines represent different people and even different denominations.  The lines are all the paths we take as we grow closer to Jesus.  As we grow closer to Jesus, we grow closer to the Truth.  When you look at this picture you see some lines are on total opposite sides of the Truth, or the big circle, while other lines are close together.  This shows the wide range of truths as we each interpret things according to our own experiences.

Next the image moved.  The circle of Truth lifted up and the lines were hanging down from it.  It now appeared to be a 3-D cone with the skinny part being the circle of Truth at the top.  This represents how we each climb closer to the Truth as we grow in our Christian walk.  Some are further along in their walk than others.  They are further up the cone.  Also, as we climb up the cone, those that are complete opposite us are getting closer as well.  As we continue to get closer to the Truth, we also get closer to one another in our interpretations. 

I hope I was able to describe my picture in an understandable way.  I feel God was telling me that it was OK that we all had differences.  We do not need to worry too much about the Christian walk of others.  As long as they are continuing to grow, we do not need to worry about our differences.  God will take care of that.  As we grow closer to Him, we will also grow closer to each other in opinion.  It is a journey for all and we can not judge the path of others.  There may be times we need to reach out a hand and help others in their climb, but we continue to keep our focus on the Truth, looking onward and upward.  We all need to continue on our own path and some day we will all reach the Truth at the top.  It won’t happen on this side of eternity, but it will happen.  I just felt it was a beautiful picture and it is refreshing to not worry too much about our different versions of what it means to be Christian.  In the end we will all learn what we had right and where we fell a little short.