Dear Colossians,

So much of the New Testament is made up of letters to the first churches, it's like reading someone else's mail. Thousands of years later I can read a message sent to, say, the town of Colosse, but what was it like for them to hear it? Context clues can give us some idea of the blessings and challenges the Colossians faced, but it's not as if I've met them.

The letter-writer didn't either . . . .

"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints" (Colossians 1:3-4)

Paul--trailblazer for welcoming people into God's family--never got the chance to visit the church in Colosse. And yet he greets them the same way he does all his churches: with enthusiasm and thankfulness. Paul always writes to believers who are struggling with sin (i.e., all of us), but he never starts with his corrections or warnings. Instead, he starts by celebrating what unites them: their faith in God. Paul prays for these individuals on a regular basis and is thankful for the love they share--even though he's never seen their faces!

It's too easy for me to forget that there are believers all around me and all throughout the world. Paul's enthusiasm reminds us that we are one family. No matter what divides us, we serve the same God who calls us to love and pray for one another. Even as we strive to better ourselves and our churches, we should celebrate each others' strengths. After all, we're not strangers--we're sisters and brothers.

"And we pray for this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God [...] so that you may have great endurance and patience" (v. 10-11).

Paul knows firsthand how hard life can be, and so he doesn't just thank God for his fellow believers' strengths--he also prays that they will be strengthened. The key to living for God is to know how God wants us to live. That's why Paul's letters transition from greeting and encouragement into doctrine about who God is. Knowledge of God empowers us with endurance. Having Him for a Father doesn't make life's circumstances easy; it gives our lives a purpose that makes it easier to grow through those circumstances.

"For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (v. 13-14).

Patience and endurance are possible in this temporary life because God's promised us a better one. We're designed to need good, whole things, but we're tainted by our imperfections. Jesus took the punishment for our failures and defied death so that we don't have to be separated from God anymore. The price of admission into heaven has been paid for everyone who believes it. Paul affirms this over and over in his letters because he knows from personal experience: restlessness, despair, and pain don't seem as heavy in the lightness of the hope God gives us.

Today, I don't want to pray just for myself. I want to pray for all of you . . .

To thank God that we can grow in our knowledge of Him together.

To praise Him and celebrate the way His love connects us.

To ask that, like Paul, we will encourage each other to live for God on our way

to His kingdom.

Even if none of us meet 'til then.