It is fascinating how Salmons as anadromous fishes go back from the sea to the rivers where they were born to spawn. They swim up the river in the opposite direction to the water’s flow surpassing all kinds of obstacles to fulfil their purpose of life.
They have an impressive sense of orientation, better than a GPS, which allows them to swim in the direction back to where they were born. When they get there, the females deposit their eggs preparing their descendance according to the species’ characteristics. The salmon’s future depends on its capacity to return to its origin swimming against the current.
This incredible characteristic makes us think about the Christians who, as children of God, are citizens from the Kingdom of Heaven. A kingdom with principles and values that are different and frequently opposed to the ones from earthly ones. To live the principles and values from the Kingdom of Heaven means to go against the mundane flow facing all sorts of oppositions to simply fulfil the true existential purpose.
The bible teaches that we were created by God to love him above anything else and to love others as we love ourselves. For Christians God is the origin, the essence and the purpose of life! Our society however increasingly seeks to exclude God form its thinking and to over stimulate the competition amongst people.
Like salmons, our future as Christians depends on our capacity to face the worldly tendencies and to return to our origin in order to continue to transmit life. More than ever we need under the Holly Spirit to exercise our sense of orientation, to go back where we were “born again” and fulfil our purpose of life. Let’s prepare our descendants with the principles and values from the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Which are the celestial principles and values that you shouldn’t abandon?
- Which are the earthly principles and values that you shouldn’t adopt?
(Citizens of Heaven, John 17:15-17 / Divine GPS, John 14:26-27)
Commissioner Torben Eliason is the Territorial Commander of the Southern Africa Territory.