Aisle 14

11/6/2016               Ibrahim              late 20’s

Many shoppers at our grocery store today encountered an unusual conversation going on for over half an hour in aisle 14.  They passed by a Christian man from Chicago and a Muslim man from Egypt getting to know each other, sharing some common beliefs and respectively learning about their differences.  At first they were sharing their beliefs about the limits of science, with the Muslim – a PhD candidate named Ibrahim who studies and does research in DNA repair – confirming to the Christian (me) about the impossibility of mutations to produce new genetic information as opposed to selecting and corrupting genetic information that already exists.  We both agreed in our belief in adaptation within a species but the impossibility of evolution producing a new species.  And some heard us go on to talk about our differing views of Jesus, how as Christians our understanding of Jesus’ divinity and death on the cross is related to our understanding of God’s holiness and infinite goodness, how God’s perfect justice requires the perfect sacrifice to atone for our sin, and how His perfect love made Him willing to provide that sacrifice in His Son.  Some heard the Muslim asking all about the Bible and having many different false assumptions corrected.  And some saw the conversation end with the Christian giving the Muslim a copy of the New Testament and a copy of the book “More Than a Carpenter”, with the challenge to take another look at the teaching and claims of Christ, and the historical evidence for his divinity.  And some saw the Muslim gladly saying he would read it, despite his busy research schedule, and that he would call to discuss what he read.  What they didn’t see, however, was my joyful prayer for Ibrahim afterward, and my gratitude that God had inspired me to reach out to him in the first place.