So many people. Every single day. On the subway, on the sidewalk, on the street. As I became more accustomed to these new modes of transportation, they became blurs rushing by as we raced from one place to the next. If they’d just get out of the way…

How ironic that we came to New York for the people.  Yet in less than a week, many of them had become mere obstacles to overcome as we sought to focus on our goals for the week.

Of course, that’s just me because all week long (just like on our Kentucky trip last year) our youth have been imagining what it might look like if the Messiah were among us.  What if the Messiah were one of our friends?  What would we see happening and what would we do ourselves?  What if it were us?  As followers of Jesus, shouldn’t we be acting like that anyway?

One of my good friends in Youth Ministry passed this idea along to me, and it’s based on a story told by Scott Peck called “The Rabbi’s Gift.”  Read it here:  http://philipchircop.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/the-rabbis-gift/

Our youth have demonstrated amazing insight and compassion this week by looking for the Messiah in their midst.  Each day they passed 4 crosses among themselves, presenting one to a friend whenever they noticed a Christ-like action.

It was a joy each evening to listen as they recounted how the crosses had traveled among themselves while they worked.  It stopped briefly on a small kindness here…a good attitude there…hard work…extra patience with one difficult child…or a dozen.

Our eyes are tired after these 9 long days. But it’s a good tired because we’ve been looking for the Messiah all week. Hopefully, by the time your eyes read this tomorrow, ours will be resting blissfully on a train ride back to Greensboro. But you keep yours open. Because we want you to see the Messiah too.