President's Desk

Dear friends,

Every time I prepare to travel overseas my sons want to know how far away I'm traveling and how strange (as in "different from home") the place will be. When I visited Japan a few weeks ago, they asked these same questions again.

While I'm amazed that I can travel so far so fast, they consider an eleven-hour flight ridiculously long. But, from their perspective, if Luke Skywalker can traverse his galaxy in a few minutes (which is why I call him Luke Jaywalker), why should it take me so long to cross an ocean?

Neither of my sons is big on vegetables; so both express amazement, but not surprise, that my favorite Japanese foods are seaweed cakes and green horseradish. I offered to bring some home for them, but for some reason they declined. For them, though, the strangest things about Japan, besides the different baths and toilets, are the difficulties of English translation and the density of people-so many millions jammed into such small islands. They wonder why I am willing to accept such (minor) discomfort and put aside my North American ways.

As I watch their eyes grow wide from my descriptions and stories, I am reminded of another journey far more limiting and far stranger than any one of us can imagine, a journey made by the Creator Himself. When I consider all the powers, capacities, and splendors Christ possessed, that He would condescend to visit Earth and live among us in human form seems unfathomable. I am impressed by how patiently and graciously He put up with our inability to understand His message. He never walked away in frustration. He always found the best and most succinct ways to get His points across. Jesus was the ultimate cross-cultural missionary. As we consider His compassion, what He did for us, not only in coming but also in going to the cross, how can any of us balk at the opportunities God places before us to be His ambassadors of Good News to the world.

Sincerely,

Hugh Ross