«Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.» ACTS 20:28, NKJV
The Canary Islands are located about sixty-two miles off the northwestern coast of Africa. Not long ago I visited one of the islands called Tenerife. My mother’s family originally came from the Canary Islands, and she would tell me stories about these islands. I would find them on the map and think to myself, «Wow, they’re in such a remote part of the world!» You’ll never guess what is right in the middle of Tenerife—a giant volcano, Mt. Teide. A road led up to the crater, so we rented a car and drove to the crater. After a while we got above the tree line, and eventually all that was left were endless lava flows. Miles and miles of terrain, where all you see Is lava and more lava. Soon, even the clouds were down below us. We finally made it to the rim of the crater. At this point, we were miles from the nearest tree or any type of vegetation. It looked as though we were on the moon or some alien rock. To our surprise, the volcano still went up another several thousand feet! And we discovered that there was a cable car that could take visitors to the summit of the volcano! This was an exciting opportunity, so we went up and saw that the view was spectacular indeed. Tenerife is a good-size island, but from up there we could see the entire island and even a few of the neighboring islands.
As we live out our lives here on earth, GOD has asked each one of us to be guardians and overseers of God’s church. Just as I could see the entire Island from the top of that volcano, GOD has asked us to be aware of the needs of the people in our church and community. They may be hard to see sometimes, but ask GOD today to reveal the needs of others around you.