AFTER HOURS of traveling by car and looking at beautiful scenery, we arrived at the native lands of the Cabécar people in Costa Rica. We were not there for a visit; we were going to work hard for that community. My two children were with me. Razyel, in spite of her young age, served the Cabécar people in any way she could, and the desire was ignited in her to get baptized with them.
«Mom, please let me get baptized with the Cabécars!»she asked me with a beautiful sparkle in her eyes, and added, «I like to be a servant and a missionary of God.»
I got a lump in my throat when my precious daughter went down to the baptismal waters. I could not help thinking about the words she had used: «servant» and «missionary.» My daughter wanted to be a servant of Jesus to become a missionary, and for that reason she wanted to give herself to Him in baptism.
The Greek word that the New Testament uses where we read «servant» is doulos. It refers to a person who is in subjection to another from the social and economic viewpoint, but used in the context of Christianity, it is a metaphor of the total surrender that a person makes of his or her will (time, talents, decisions, resources) to the will of Christ, to contribute in this way to the advancement of His work. It has to do with putting the work of salvation above our own personal interests.
«Servant» and «missionary»; what my daughter wanted to be and express publicly is what we should want to be, and be it in such a way that others will also notice it. God’s servants always have a mission to fulfill, various challenges to confront, and battles to fight. Caleb, whose example we take from today’s text, was called servant by God «because he [had] a different spirit in him.» What did it mean to have the spirit of a servant of the Lord? It was living by faith, acting accordingly, and being a light for the people. The Lord blessed him abundantly and allowed him to go into the Promised Land
Can you visualize our Promised Land, that eternal dwelling where we will continue being servants of Christ out of love? If you do, decide every day to be a servant and a missionary.
«But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it» (Numbers 14:24)