Built on the lives of others

In the last few posts I've been documenting my trip to Crimea based on the people I met. Often we talk about our adventures based on the things we see- mountains, an ocean, a tower, a city, etc. What captured my thoughts from this trip was the reality that it's not the buildings and destinations that are important.....it's the people. In fact the bible says our lives are built on the lives of others, not simply on the destinations we have seen. Peter wrote these words in one of his letters,

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1Peter 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

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My purpose in the recent posts is to highlight the truth that what I am and what I become is because of the lives of those I meet and live my life with. We are who we are because of our interactions with other lives. Each of us touches another life, and both lives are affected by the touch. Those who isolate themselves from others have been wounded by someone in the past, and now try to avoid further pain, but it's those encounters with other lives that make us who we are. We are the result of the lives we have touched and the lives that have touched us. Cherish the touch of others and be aware that these divine encounters are intended to build us into a "spiritual house", a building that is built on Christ himself....a family connected by Christ and built on his sacrifice, a family that is connected by our relationships and molded by our encounters.

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Realize that there are no accidental encounters, no small relationships. Every life that touches us affects us, molds us and we them....into who we become. Make your encounters positive, encouraging, edifying, so that your construction in the lives of others will build them up into all that God wants them to be, so that they will become imitators of Christ in their lives.