Diptych with Mary and Her Son Flanked by Archangels, Apostles and a Saint, Ethiopia, 15th century, tempera on wood, left panel: 8 7/8 x 7 13/16 x 5/8 inches (The Walters Art Museum)
When Jesus called Simon and Andrew, he promised them that if they followed him he would make them fishers of people.* I don’t recall hearing any promises when Jesus called me to follow him. All I heard was his loving, welcoming, forgiving voice at a time when I was lonely and sad, and I longed to know God. I was twelve when Jesus first invited me to follow him.
I was born into a Jewish household in the shadow of the Holocaust. Almost everyone I knew was Jewish, and as far as I could tell, almost no one I knew believed that God cared about the millions of Jews that had been killed, or the millions of Jews that were still alive and mourned their dead. My parents went to the synagogue out of grief, habit, and a sense of obligation to preserve the Jewish people and culture, not because they expected to meet God there. When I asked the rabbi about God, I heard abstractions about ethical monotheism. I was told that God could not be described or named or understood. And still I longed to know God.
Of course, growing up in the US, I had heard about Jesus. In those days, everyone — even in public schools — learned to sing Christmas carols. What I heard intrigued me, and I decided to read the New Testament. There, I read about a man who knew God so intimately that he called God his father in heaven. He went around healing people, he cared about poor people, listened to everybody’s troubles, and didn’t give in to bullies. By the time he died, people were saying that when they were with Jesus, it was like being with God.
It took me thirty years to finally say “yes” to Jesus. I was baptized at Seekers Church in 1990, when I was 42 years old. I often feel close to Simon, Andrew, Mary Magdalene, and the other disciples. They were all Jews like me, confused and astonished at what they heard and saw and felt as they followed Jesus around. And, like them, when I am with Jesus and his followers, I know that I am with God.
-- Deborah Sokolove, Seekers Church
For More...
- When did you start following Jesus?
- What did you hear or feel when Jesus called you?
- How do you know you are in the presence of God?
For more thoughts, ideas, and history about following Jesus, take a look at the website.
I haven’t read or listened to everything there, but what I’ve looked at is very intriguing.
