Recently I got involved in a discussion as to how I relate to Jesus as my savior. I realized.. with something of a shock.. that I don't really think in those terms anymore. Oh-oh.. that doesn't sound good. Have I grown in my understanding.. or am I losing something essential? I began thinking about the broad sweep of God's mighty acts in history. The term Savior in the First Testament doesn't occur, if we are thinking about "personal savior." Israel hoped in a Deliverer.. their hope was for national deliverance from oppression. From the story of the exodus.. until the time of Jesus and Israel under the heel of Rome.. their thought was for national deliverance. These days I don't think much about personal salvation.. I think about Redemption. I think about God's plan to redeem creation. I think about his hope for a renewed church, that will truly be a light in the darkness. In some ways I feel too small and insignificant for God's agenda. In part this is because I am no longer starting from self and looking upward.. I am beginning with God and looking downward. The spatial metaphor is too limited.. but the point is that God is at the center of this story, and not me.. and not you. We are just dust carried by the Wind.. here today, and gone tomorrow. God's story continues (yes, and we live too.. because He lives). We join a story that has continued since Abraham. Or perhaps.. Adam. Jesus, after all, was the second Adam and restored that creational mandate. I think less about salvation and more about shalom, less about the church and more about the kingdom, less about myself and more about God's purposes in the world. I hope for a Deliverer. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.