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*Brian Wilcox. 'the Light heralds a New Day'. Flickr
Today, I met Christ. She was slow, walking with a stick. Her movements showed she was feeble. We talked in the grocery store, at checkout. Afterward, I first left, and I deposited my groceries in the truck. On returning to leave the cart in the store entrance, this Christ was coming out into the slow rain, pushing her cart and two bags of groceries. After leaving my cart inside, I walked out and went up to her cart, asking could I assist. She said I could, and she asked would I put her bags in the back of her SUV. I did. She was thankful. I told her I would return her cart inside, and she was welcoming for me to do that. Yes, I met Christ today, and as Christ as often blessed me, I was gifted this day to bless Christ. Christ, indeed, is one to be blessed and to give blessing, and Christ is wherever you go, before you get there. The question is whether we will recognize Christ, or not.
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Having been raised in conservative, Bible-believing Christianity, it has been a long, difficult journey arriving at reconciling my whole being to the truth as I early sensed it. What I experienced in this religious background, I cherish. I was introduced to a way of Love, embodied in Jesus. Jesus I saw to be my best friend. Later, I came to cherish Jesus and Christ, when prior Jesus and Christ were identified as the same. I came to experience Jesus as embodiment of Christ, or the Word. So, one cannot find a dividing point between the man and the Word, yet they are not the same ~ recall, one or oneness does not mean the same. The Christ is many Christs, Jesus one Jesus.
Now, almost 50 years since inviting Jesus into my heart, as we referred to it in my home church, I still feel love for the Christ and Jesus. I affirm the mystery of the Incarnation of the Christ, or the Word, in the man Jesus of the 1st Century. Yet, in a sense, Christ expanded for me, which is to say, Love showed me that referred to as “Christ” is not in opposition to any truth, does not belong to any religion. I began seeing many ways I had not been taught of seeing Christ, I had not realized Christ was everywhere, and I had missed Christ in many faces and many places. I had been taught Christ belonged to Christianity alone, no one else. Christ was in a few, I was told, not in everyone.
I came to celebrate we all belong to Christ, regardless of our faith orientation or lack of it. Regarding Jesus, one can know the Christ without knowing Jesus, except in the absolute sense ~ to know anyone, is to know all.
For me, to meet the Christ in anyone, anywhere, is not mystical. This is simply a fact. Christ is as plain to see as anyone, anything. When one sees through the Christ, or better, Christ sees through the self, then Christ is seen in all places, in all faces. Christ is not merely a metaphysical Reality, but Grace alive in matter.
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