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I was hanging out with one of my favourite Kiwi ATCKs on Friday, and he mentioned he’d met a guy from my church and instantly bonded with him. “That makes sense. He’s a TCK too,” I told him. Then I had a good laugh as Lance was shocked to learn it’s a quintessential TCK quality to skip the surface level in friendships and go deep fast. I also really love that what these two dudes bonded over was Jesus before their cross-cultural upbringing.

I love Jesus. I want that to be the first thing people notice about me. Sure the wheelchair and the American accent and the perfect eyebrows all stand out, but I want the lasting impression to be, “That girl really loves Jesus and it shows in how she loves others too.” I don’t have one of those rescued from drug rehab stories, and like Larry Norman before me, my childhood was riddled with trepidation that my influence wouldn’t be as significant without some massive rescue testimony to share about my radical conversion to Christianity.

The thing is, I have a beautiful story, and I get to celebrate with so many young people who have been raised in God-honouring homes that they get to keep choosing Jesus for themselves without some drop off the edge that God rescued them from. Equally, I get to cheer on the work of transformation in the lives of young people who have a more roundabout journey of transformation. Each story is individually beautiful as God invites us into relationship and transforms our hearts. Because I’m still transformed from those early years of following Jesus as a four-year-old. By the grace of God, my faith as matured.

This afternoon, I had a really encouraging catch up with one of my year thirteens who’s keen to share her testimony in front of youth group this term. She has a beautiful story of amazing parents who love her sharing Jesus with her and discipling her into faith without any wild fire from heaven conversion moment, and she’s been blessed with Christian schooling and solid youth group support growing up. What we celebrated today is that these things didn’t guarantee a real relationship with Jesus, but she chooses Jesus each morning when she wakes up. She actively pursues growth in her faith. And her testimony has such value across the board for youth group young people to hear about the faithfulness in pursuit of God through our lives.

Her story glorifies God so beautifully. So does mine. So does my youth who made a first time decision on a kids camp and made the brave decision to come to church alone when no family member was interested. So does the young adult who took a season away from church to realise the significance of the work of Jesus in their life. Every story has a place to make God famous in different ways like facets of a diamond that enhance the beauty.

We announced to the whole church this morning that our theme for the year at RCC is “For His Glory” which fits so beautifully to our youth group term emphasis on how Jesus has transformed individual lives (almost like I planned it). When I say I want people to notice that I love Jesus, that’s a for his glory thing. I want to point people to him. I want my life to be a reflection of his good, and I want to testify to how he can do that for others as well. For his glory.