I came across a co-worker this week. It was a co-worker I had never met before. In fact, I didn't even know he was a co-worker of mine until he said just six words.
"Because God made them that way."
I didn't run into him at work because he wasn't that kind of a co-worker. I ran into him on the side of a mountain.
I was hiking this week up South Mountain in Phoenix with Ashley, my fiance, and as we were making our way back down the trail, we approached 2 children and what seemed to be maybe an older brother or maybe even a babysitter; I really have no clue. Neither one of our parties broke stride as we passed but what happened next was incredible. One of the children asked the older stranger, "How did mountains become mountains?" The older stranger simply replied, "Because God made them that way."
It was youth ministry at it's finest. A child, whom God loves and cares for so much, had a question. It wasn't a deep question, but it was an honest question--much like a lot of the questions that all children and teenagers have about truth and God. And in 6 words, this older stranger ministered to that child. He ministered to that child because he took the child's simple, honest, most genuine question, and pointed the child to the only answer that ever works: God.
He pointed the child to God.
In that brief 10 seconds of my day, I was able to observe a co-worker of mine, a fellow youth pastor, who for all I know, doesn't even work in or for a church, point a young heart towards the One who created it. And I was reminded that I'm not alone in my calling. There are thousands of us out there. Millions of youth pastors that may not carry the title, but they share the same calling: to point our youth towards the Mountains of mountains, the Creator of the universe--God.
Thank you God for my co-workers.
-NW
