In the opening sequence of John's gospel there is a lot of positive name calling. Jesus is called the Word, he's the creator, he is the life, the light, the Son, the Christ, the Lamb of God, God's chosen One. John too, is named and identified, but it's the naming of the first followers by Jesus himself that draws my attention today.
There's Andrew, Simon, Philip and Nathanael. Nathanael is interesting, not only because of the way he comes to Jesus, but because, as I recall, he's the one name missing from the twelve apostles listed in the other gospels. He didn't make the cut so-to-speak, but that doesn't make him any less important and in no way unworthy of mentioning. In fact I don't remember John ever listing the twelve as Mark, Matthew and Luke do.
The point is this: you may not be a high profile, well-known follower of Jesus, but that doesn't mean you are less significant to the work of the kingdom. If Jesus can say to Nathanael, "You will see greater things than this," and he wasn't an apostle, he can surely say something similar to you.
We're off to Spring Harvest today. I'm sure there will be a few "celebrity Christians", people who don't set themselves up to be seen as more important, but who are raised to that status by the subconscious idolising of others. But thanks to Jesus, we are all the same in the kingdom. He knows us all by name, and he knows even more than that about each one of us.
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