I hope by now you've all gone to http://www.thenuttersisters.com/ to meet some of my new Twitter friends. I follow their blog and am very entertained by it.
Another friend I met on Twitter is a young woman living in Madrid, Spain. She studies microbiology AND she sings opera. I've known people who've studied microbiology before, in fact I took one microbiology class myself and the instructor was one of my best friends. But I've never known an opera singer! I can't wait until her CD is ready. I'll buy it and when I play it I'll just casually brag, "Yea, that's my friend the opera singer."
At one point, through our conversations, my new friend asked me if I was a believer. Of course I answered "yes" I am a believer. It was a simple question and a simple answer was all that was needed. On Twitter, simple answers are a necessity since you only get to write 140 characters or less at a time.
I kept thinking about her question, though, and realized I couldn't remember anyone ever asking me that before. Maybe some don't ask because they don't really care. Maybe others don't ask because I wear a cross so often, it is pretty obvious. I suppose being married to a pastor also leads to the assumption that I am a believer.
This train of thought made me think about early Christians who had to fear for their lives if they were identified as believers. Think back to Peter, fearing for his life and denying he was a believer after Jesus was taken captive. Later, Christians were killed in a variety of horrible ways, just for being believers. There are places on this Earth where people are still tortured or killed just for being Christians.
I remember hearing a story about the Christian fish symbol. I don't even know if the story is true but I've remembered it for many years so I'm going to share it. What I was told was that in the early years of the church, when two people met, one would casually draw one side of the fish symbol with their foot in the dirt. If the other person was not a Christian they'd just see it as foot doodling. If they were a Christian, they'd draw the second half. In this way they'd both know they were safe to discuss their faith.
Another friend I met on Twitter is a young woman living in Madrid, Spain. She studies microbiology AND she sings opera. I've known people who've studied microbiology before, in fact I took one microbiology class myself and the instructor was one of my best friends. But I've never known an opera singer! I can't wait until her CD is ready. I'll buy it and when I play it I'll just casually brag, "Yea, that's my friend the opera singer."
At one point, through our conversations, my new friend asked me if I was a believer. Of course I answered "yes" I am a believer. It was a simple question and a simple answer was all that was needed. On Twitter, simple answers are a necessity since you only get to write 140 characters or less at a time.
I kept thinking about her question, though, and realized I couldn't remember anyone ever asking me that before. Maybe some don't ask because they don't really care. Maybe others don't ask because I wear a cross so often, it is pretty obvious. I suppose being married to a pastor also leads to the assumption that I am a believer.
This train of thought made me think about early Christians who had to fear for their lives if they were identified as believers. Think back to Peter, fearing for his life and denying he was a believer after Jesus was taken captive. Later, Christians were killed in a variety of horrible ways, just for being believers. There are places on this Earth where people are still tortured or killed just for being Christians.
I remember hearing a story about the Christian fish symbol. I don't even know if the story is true but I've remembered it for many years so I'm going to share it. What I was told was that in the early years of the church, when two people met, one would casually draw one side of the fish symbol with their foot in the dirt. If the other person was not a Christian they'd just see it as foot doodling. If they were a Christian, they'd draw the second half. In this way they'd both know they were safe to discuss their faith.
I have a fish symbol necklace that Mike gave me more than 30 years ago.
I also have that symbol on my Bible cover.
Like I said, I don't know if that is true but I've liked the fish symbol more since I heard that tale. It helps me remember those who've travelled this path before us.
4 comments:
I've heard too that they would use the fish symbol to identify themselves.., The Eve joke was hilarious by the way, deserves a comic strip!
Weird, that dad mentioned it today as well!
I have it as a tattoo!
AKM, that's so cool! If I were to get a tattoo I think I'd consider that as well.
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