And the first shall be last, and the last shall be first, and if I'm in the middle I don't have to move, right?

So, last night, I’m driving my 8 year old daughter to the church we are currently attending for their evening “Vacation Bible Camp”. Out of the blue, she asks, “Daddy, can I ask you question about the Bible?”

“Sure, babe, what’s up?”

“Well, I’m not sure I understand something.”

Great, I think, how deep will this get. There is SO MUCH about the Bible that I don’t understand!!! “Okay, what don’t you understand?”

“I don’t understand what it means when it says that the last will be first and the first will be last.”

Heh, that’s a good thing to not understand. I explained to her that when Jesus said that, he was promoting an attitude of humility and talking to the religious leaders of the day. I explained to her that the way we live, in the way of Christ, will be used as evidence in our judgment. (We’ve talked about judgment and what that means many times before.)

GREAT ANSWER, BRAD!!! WHOOHOO!!! Dodged that bullet. Sure, it opens the door for more questions, but she’ll stew on that for a while. Not exactly what I think that verse means, but it was a quick answer without a Bible right in front of me.

“Daddy?”

“Yes?”

“Am I last?”

Oh, boy. How do I answer this one? Think….think…..think…..

“Well, I think that being last is something that you have to work toward, but it’s not even that, being last is just something that you are. You don’t actually work to BECOME last. You work to become what God wants you to be, working to form yourself to be more Christlike. And if you are truly living in the way of Christ, then you will meet whatever God’s requirements are for being ‘last’. But, babe, this isn’t something you need to really worry about.”

She was quiet for a minute or two.

“What if there are a lot of people, all trying to be last? How do I get to be more last than them?”

My first thought was to say, hope that there are only 3 people, and then aim for #2. That way, you won’t have to move. Conveniently, we got to the church before I had much of a chance to answer. I’m still thinking this one through, but it’s a fun conversation.