This morning, I awoke to discover this wonderful picture in my email inbox. Thank you, Suzi Planas, for being so thoughtful. That one picture, born of your compassion, is a great blessing in my life today.

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If someone challenged you to describe Christianity in one paragraph, could you do it? How would you do it? What words would you use to describe the essence of the faith to which you have staked your eternal destiny?

On the flight to West Virginia, I read Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by one of my favorite authors, British scholar N.T. Wright. Here is how Wright, in one paragraph, describes Christanity.

"Christianity is all about the belief that the living God, in fulfillment of his promises and as the climax of the story of Israel, has accomplished all of this -- the finding, the saving, the giving of new life -- in Jesus. He has done it. With Jesus, God's rescue operation has been put into effect once and for all. A great door has swung open in the cosmos which can never again be shut. It's the door to the prison where we've been kept chained up. We are offered freedom: freedom to experience God's rescue for ourselves, to go through the open door and explore the new world to which we now have access. In particular, we are all invited -- summoned acutally -- to discover, through following Jesus, that this new world is indeed a place of justice, spirituality, relationship, and beauty, and that we are not only to enjoy it as such but to work at bringing it to birth on earth as it is in heaven" (92).