A worldwide bookshelf

Today is introduction day.  In the last month, this blog has hosted visitors from France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, and the USA.  Most of these are parts of the world to which I’ve never traveled, all in turn making this blog connection extra sweet!  It’s like a worldwide library with all of us walking up to the same bookshelf to check out the same book of stories.  Recently a friend suggested acknowledging the breadth of readership here, and so today I officially welcome you to this blog!  To the readers in all 8 countries this last month, may you take pleasure in knowing each other's company, and I'm so glad you're here!  You are not simply a statistic, nor are you a casual passerby.  You are someone for whom I pray, and you are one whom Jesus Christ loves dearly.  I never know the exact addresses of readers, so don’t worry about privacy issues.  All I know is the name of the country wherein someone’s computer sits.  I think of Mark 16:15, where Jesus is telling the apostles, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”  Each of us today experiences the Lord in our separate parts of the world, yet we come together through Jesus and the Bible and in the reading of this blog.  Your country may send missionaries to my country, and mine may send missionaries to yours.  Yet according to 1 Peter, we are one nation.  As he addresses Believers who are scattered throughout the countries, Peter says in 2:9 that we are a “holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of him who [calls us] out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  I look forward to welcoming next month’s readership too.  How I would be elated as well to hear your stories of the Lord anytime.