Tell the story of your life

There is a true story of two Genoan sailors who landed on an island off the Mediterranean coast. When they began to explore it, they found a monk who had been attacked by island natives and left for dead. The sailors rescued him and took him aboard the ship and set sail for their homeport of Genoa. One day en route, the monk was well enough to be carried on deck for fresh air. As the sailors helped him lean over the ship’s railing, the monk grabbed one of the young man with one arm and with the other waved out across the sea and said, “Over there is a land where the gospel has not gone. Send men there.” Then he collapsed and died a short time later.

The young sailor was greatly impacted by the monk’s words his entire life, telling the story over and over. As he grew older, his grandchildren would sit at his feet and listen to the tales of his seafaring life. The most repeated story was the one about the monk. The grandfather would always finish with the words “Over there is land where the gospel has not gone. Send men there.” Eventually, the grandchildren developed other interests and tired of hearing the story. Except for one. The youngest would ask his grandfather to tell it to him over and over. Years past and the grandfather died and no one ever told the story again. An ordinary sailor with an ordinary life that history would not bother to remember. Well maybe not quite. The young sailor who found the monk so many years before was named Stephen Columbus. No one knows what became of his many grandchildren, except for the one named Christopher.

Ex. 13:8 On that day tell your children, ‘I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

Have you told the story of your life? You never know who is listening.