The Eternal Flame
/The Eternal Flame
As a child, I never had much interest in Sunday school or catechism class. I thought I had the whole salvation thing worked out. I preferred to spend my time at church chasing after childhood crushes and hiding in the pews.
Catechism class was a bit of a walk. From my little parochial school room I would round the gym, pass by the big doors at the end of the hallway, go up some stairs to cross the choir loft and then back down some stairs into the fireside room. I knew just how to plan my trek to obtain maximum girl-chasing and pew-hiding time. I waited in the right places at the right times and then drifted back, hid, got a drink of water, forgot something – you name it. This allowed me to conveniently separate from the pack and linger alone until they finally came looking for me.
From my vantage point in those days, believing in Jesus was a get-out-of-hell-free pass. It kept me from going to the place of fire and brimstone someday. And if I wasn’t going to hell, I knew the flip side of that coin meant that I was going to heaven. Conversations about life, death, and Jesus usually revolved around place, not person. God Himself was never understood as the destination. All I knew was this: “If you’re good and believe in Jesus, you go to heaven. If you’re bad and don't believe the salvation prayer, you go to hell.” The Creator of the creature, the actual person, was not talked about. He was not the vision. Heaven was. I had never glimpsed or spent time with the idea of God and therefore had never thought about knowing God, or seeing Him in the flesh of His son. Somehow, I missed all of that.
I missed Jesus.
And yet ... He never stopped calling to me.
Many times, when I was trying to avoid class, I would find myself alone, lingering in the sanctuary, or hiding in a pew, avoiding the teaching about this religion that I had no interest in. And while I thought I was escaping God in those moments, even then I was drawn to something mysterious that compelled me to look up.
The sanctuary had an eternal flame that hung from the ceiling at the front– a single, red vase with a solitary candle, always burning. It captivated me. The soft, muted, constant light enchanted me. I often looked at it for so long that my vision was red. Even when my mind was disengaged, fully yet unconsciously enmeshed into the narrative of the cave, my vision was compelled upwards. Long before I knew that such a thing truly existed, I heard the whisper of Love.
I didn’t know Jesus was the One I was looking for, until the day I finally saw Him.
Author: Zach Elliott
Zach Elliott describes himself as an ordinary man who loves Jesus. Anyone who knows Zach Elliott would describe him as far from ordinary. Zach began his career with Oregon State Police as a Forensic Evidence Technician, then served as a church planter and a pastor before launching V3, a ministry committed to sharing the Gospel and loving the Church. He is a husband, father, speaker, author, and thought leader, engaging the world with a powerful message of hope and restoration in Christ. He has a contagious love of life, finds beauty in the most unlikely places, and loves people with an uncommon depth of respect and honor.
This excerpt is quoted from Zach’s book, Now I See.
