Like so many young people like them in their early 20’s, Angelica and Jose grew up getting their information about the world largely from the internet and social media. So I don’t blame them for being confused about all the religious messages they’ve encountered, and for their conclusion that they can just pick and choose what ideas they like best.
When I was in my late teens, I kind of viewed the Bible the same way. It seemed to me to be full of unconnected stories and religious characters, and if someone had struck up a conversation with me and asked me about it like I did with Angelica and Jose there in the middle of a shopping errand, I would have sounded just as confused and willing to just choose “whatever sounds best” like they did.
That is, until someone pointed me to Jesus. Of course I knew about Jesus, but it wasn’t until some faithful Christian adults helped me see how Jesus is central to the whole Bible; how throughout the Old Testament there is anticipation of and faith in the coming Messiah; how the disciples and others were real people who struggled with doubts and a growing faith in Jesus; and how for the rest of the New Testament we have the story of people living out their new-found faith together in establishing and growing various local churches.
And as they kept me focused on Jesus I began to see how his teaching gives us sound wisdom and guidance for everyday life, and that those who follow Him closely have a joy and confident humility, even the freedom to laugh at themselves, that I’d never really seen in anyone else, and I gradually realized this came because they spent time together with Jesus and His people.
I couldn’t live that out in a quick conversation with Angelica and Jose there in an aisle at a Target store, but I tried to do the next best thing: I pointed them to the source of Life, to the pages of the Gospels at the beginning of the New Testament, and to the life of a local church where people are hearing and living out the life-giving words of Jesus they find there.
Angelica and Jose and I had a rather unexpected and crazy conversation there in a grocery aisle at Target. But after hearing their beliefs, I was just pointing the way to Jesus and the eternal and abundant life He gives.
Jesus said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man (Jesus) will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Jesus used an analogy of a common need that leads people to a common place. We all need food, and we all need to shop for groceries. But maybe on this shopping trip Angelica and Jose began to realize that there is another common need - a spiritual need - that we also all share. And Jesus is the one who provides spiritual food that will last forever!
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