Fellow Travellers (by John Fischer)

Just Good Company
by John Fischer

Someone just signed a message to me, “God bless you, dear fellow traveler,” and something about that felt good. Of course the blessing part feels good; I never turn down a blessing from anyone. Our dry cleaning man is a dear Korean believer who never ceases to bless my family and me every time I see him. It's getting to where I go for the blessing now, heck with the dry cleaning! But I especially like the “dear fellow traveler” part.

As believers in Christ and members of the family of God we are, indeed, travelers on a trip with a destination. We are not insignificant results of evolved DNA wandering around the cosmos with no end but a forgotten grave. We are sacred stories in the mind of a Creator-God on a journey to our eternal home with Him, and He is using our lives, along the way, to make a statement.

And because this journey has a destination, all points of it have meaning. We are not just marking time here. We are building towards something solid. The steps are a necessary part of our growth. If we didn't need this, we wouldn't be here. God would have taken us home long ago. But our work here is not finished, and not only our work, but also the work of life's experiences upon us, is still being done. God is using everything in our lives to mold us into who He wants us to be for Him in eternity. We are fellow travelers with a destination and the destination brings purpose and hope to the here and now. You can endure just about anything along the way, if you know, ahead of time, that the outcome of your journey is secure.

But we are also “fellow travelers.” In other words, we are going where we are going together. That's a big part of the deal. You don't go it alone on this road to eternity. We have not only a cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and are now cheering us on (Hebrews 12:1), we have a fellowship of those around us who are in the middle of the same journey. We have each other for companionship, comfort, strength, accountability, and encouragement. And when we fall, there is always someone there to pick us up.

Isn't it good to have company?