.sent.ones.
The other day I was thinking about words and what they mean, and where God and creativity fit into that {pretty much just nerding out} and I started to think about the word missionary.
Since I was a little girl, I have wanted to be a missionary. When I was super young I would write letters to them and read their stories. My parents were constantly surrounding me with their missionary friends, and teaching me to pray for nations. I like to tell my parents these days that they pretty much ruined me. When I express the desire to go to countries that make them squirm I like to follow with “It’s totally your fault,” with a clever smirk on my face.
As I began to think about the word missionary God prompted me to look up it’s origin and not just it’s definition. This led me to look up mission, the word missionary is derived from and this is what it said:
Origin of “mission”:
mid 16th. century (denoting the sending of the Holy Spirit into the world): from Latin missio, from mittere ‘send’
To be a missionary is to be a sent one. The original mission was the one where Jesus was sent not just to save the world, but to redeem restore and reconcile it. He healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, healed people emotionally, and loved them radically in spite of the social expectations and religion of his day. He was creative and pushed boundaries, rubbing spit in one man’s eyes to heal them. He carried so much of the presence of God that people were healed merely by touching his clothing. Then He died on a cross, only to be raised three days later so that we could live abundantly. So that we could be a people fully living. Then before He left He told His apostles about some goodness that was about to be unleashed upon them: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (acts 1:8)
We carry His spirit as we are sent into the world. Wherever we go we are missionaries. We are sent ones, called to release His presence and His kingdom everywhere our feet will tread, and in every realm of society.
