Recognising the Love of Jesus

When I was working as a nurse in mobile medical clinics in rural Cambodia, people would often wait off to the side of the station I was working at. They came holding the tablets or tinctures they’d been prescribed, waiting until I had a moment to explain how to take the medicine or what to do next. And then, almost without fail, they would ask me to pray for them.

They weren’t Christians. They didn’t have a personal faith in Jesus. But they had seen what he looked like.

Our international team of Cambodians, New Zealanders, Swedes, Australians, and Americans came together in a way that echoed the early church. We didn’t follow the usual social patterns. We were different in nationality, age, background, and temperament, yet united under the lordship of Jesus as we served together in a village setting.

The people waiting at the clinic had plenty of time to watch us. Though they couldn’t have named it as Paul does in Galatians, they recognised what held us together. The fruit of the Spirit growing among us enabled us to work across cultures and differences, and in doing so, it quietly advanced God’s mission. As Chris Wright reminds us, this fruit is not an end in itself– it is the means by which God makes himself known in the world.

“Pray for us,” they would say. “We see how you love one another. We trust that.”

As I step away on annual leave for eight weeks, may the God of grace continue to grow such fruit among you, so that through your shared life, Jesus is made known.

Colleen