Never Count the Cost!

In 1872, a great demonstration was held in New Castle, Scotland. Crowds had gathered to give tribute to a man who had been born exactly 100 years before. His name was Robert Stevenson, and he was the grandfather of the famed writer, Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Stevenson had distinguished himself as an engineer in Scotland, and the parade in his honor featured dozens of banners. At the center of the procession walked a group of peasants who lived a great distance away, in the tiny village where the elder Stevenson had been born. They carried a small banner which, though not as attractively adorned as some of the other signs, bore the most profound message. It read: “He was one of us!”

We may be like those peasants in more ways than one. As we find ourselves marching shoulder to shoulder with others who honor Christ, our banners for him may not be as attractively adorned as theirs. We may not be as knowledgeable…