Captivating

Captivating. That just seems like and interesting word to me. The word captivating means "to attract and hold the attention or interest of, as by beauty or excellence; enchant." When I was 12 years old there was a person that God used to captivate me. I went into my preteen Sunday school class not expecting anything different. I expected it to be the normal bible story and craft project I had in previous Sunday schools. Boy was I wrong. The teacher was Rick McCoy, a family friend. He had decided that we were old enough to be taught something that would be valuable to us. Not that the previous Sunday school classes weren't valuable. By that time we, a class of boys, had done plenty of scripture memorization, but we had not learned much of comprehending and taking something away from those verses. This class changed that. He told us we would be studying the book of John. When I heard that I was just thinking, "John. I have a friend named John....what a boring book....I like Luke better...and so on." Then he gave us this notebook with a breakdown of what we would be learning this year. He wanted us to take notes. Then he asked a friend of mine to read John 1:1-2 which says this: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." Then he asked us what that meant. Our thoughts were, "Wait! We have to think!!! This guy is crazy!" Sure enough, the whole year was like this. He challenged us to think and had us reflect on what we learned. We spent 2 months on John chapter 1. And I'll tell you what. God caught my attention. Here I was sitting as a comfortable home schooled preteen thinking I could not do anything till I was older, and he proved me wrong. He gave me a teacher who showed us how the Word of God could be captivating and how we could share that with others.
So what is so captivating about God? What is so enchanting, so excellent, and so beautiful about God. To me, it is His mercy and grace. You have to admit that a God who sent His one and only Son to give us a way to Him is the most captivating thing you have ever heard of. Why did he do this? He loves each and every one of us despite of what we have done. He does not want us to miss the joy of being with Him. So Christ took on the sins of the world and died with them so we might be saved if we believe and have faith in Him. That to me fits the definition of captivating.

I'll tell you this: God has been so amazing, and He still is amazing. I want to follow Him always. I want to follow Him all the way to the end. I don't want to let back, I don't want to give in to temptation. I want to serve Him with all my heart, I want to be built to last an eternity with Him. And I will, because I don't want to miss the joy of the Lord whose everlasting light Christ put in our reach.