Madison J. Caplinger

On any given Tuesday night of the school year, one can walk into the BCM at Eastern Kentucky University and be greeted with smiling faces and the songs of college students who love God. Everyone around me on those Tuesday nights has some things in common: we all are EKU students. Some of us are in the same classes or participate in the same campus organizations. Some of us go to the same church. All of us probably have a complaint about where we have to park our cars.

But when I look around, I also see lots of people who are not like me; I see students of African American and Hispanic descent. I have met International students from Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia. Just before the service, I was conversing in American Sign Language with a Deaf man I had met through my ASL class. I also meet students who don’t wear their differences visibly; I meet people of different socioeconomic levels, from different parts of the country, with different family situations, and sometimes in different phases of life. 

With a sense of awe, I can’t help but think to myself “this is what Heaven will look like.” The Gospel was written for every tribe, tongue, and nation. Praises will be sung (or signed) in every language. Not all the saints will look like me. And for that, I praise God.

We were given the command to go make disciples of all nations. That means I have a calling to bring the message of Jesus Christ to people not like me. I have a calling to break the barriers of my comfort zone to reach people I would normally never cross paths with. I am thankful to be surrounded by Christians who challenge me every day to do that. 

This doesn’t have to mean just skin color or nationality. Reach out to the beggar on the street. Reach out to the person you always see alone. Reach out to someone in a different social circle. Stand amazed at the power of God to break man made barriers and unite people in Christ-like love.

 We were once alienated from Christ, and he reached down to us. May we do the same to those alienated from us.