Much Rejoicing
Dan Kunz
If you have been following these blogs for any amount of time, you may remember my friend, Thomas. He is 55 years old. He never knew his father and only remembers his mother from when he was a young boy. He was raised by a Christian grandmother. He spent more time in group homes than he can remember. He was in the military. He was a heroin addict. He is HIV positive because of his former drug use. He spent seventeen years in prison. He lives in a sixteen-year-old mini-van. He is more ADHD than any person I have ever met. He does not have a regular job. He receives government benefits because of his HIV (barely enough to live on). When faced with two choices, he will pick the wrong one nine out of ten times. But, Thomas is a friend of Jesus.
He very rarely misses the Sunday evening, non-traditional worship service at our church. The format of the service is very interactive, and Thomas is a frequent contributor, either asking questions or sharing some of his grandmother’s Bible wisdom. Over the past five years or so of his attendance and exposure to God’s plan for not only his salvation, but also for his sanctified life, Thomas has made great strides. He doesn’t always do the right thing, but he at least considers what is the right thing. The old Thomas would have simply done what he pleased, without thinking about God at all. Last week, for example, he told me about a lady friend of his who had stolen from him. He caught her red-handed and, of course, she denied knowing anything about it. Thomas had some of her possessions and asked my opinion about what to do with them. Should he throw them in the garbage or give them back to her? I asked if he wanted to get revenge or do what Jesus wanted. He admitted getting revenge would not be God-pleasing, so he planned to give them back to her. I was very proud of his growing Christian maturity.
That brings us to last Sunday evening. After months of talking about it, Thomas was baptized! He didn’t think he was baptized when he was young and so he made the conscious decision to be baptized now, so he could be a full-fledged member of God’s family. I was blessed to lead the worship service and our senior pastor, who befriended Thomas from the start, baptized him. In the relative scope of things, one baptism may not seem all that important, but in the case of Thomas, it is a flat-out miracle! A man who ten years ago would have stolen from anybody, even his beloved grandmother to feed his heroin addiction, wanted to feel the amazing grace of being a certified child of God.
Sometimes I’m afraid we shy away from anything remotely resembling emotion, but this is a case in which we can let our emotions go and rejoice with the angels!
Luke 15:4-7“Which of you, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls together his friends and his neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.” Thomas was lost, and now he’s found! He was blind, but now he sees! Rejoice with the angels!