Who Am I?

Camp Polk Cemetery, Sisters, OR

As the Apostle Paul, teaching the lessons of Jesus Christ, wrote in Ephesians 2:19:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.

On a crisp fall day in 1905, a young cowboy walked into the Sisters Saloon and asked if any ranches were looking for help to wean their fall calves. He was given a few names and brief directions of where to go. No one asked his name, no one saw which direction on the Santiam wagon road he had come.

They did however watch him leave. Perhaps he paused to check his horse’s hoof because of the nasty lava rock along the trail. Maybe he dropped something and bent to pick it up, we will never know because all that was seen was a swift and fatal kick from his horse straight in the man’s face leaving him unrecognizable in his death.

Townspeople rallied around the stranger and gave him a proper burial and to this day friendly folk still make sure there are flowers on his grave (plastic or not.)

But he didn’t have a stitch of anything on him that would let them know who he was. No letter, no name engraved on a Barlow knife – nothing.

The keeper at the saloon wished he had taken the time to at least ask for the fella’s name before hurrying on to paying customers. There was no next of kin he could notify, no sad letter he could write to Mother. On the reverse, was there a mother anxiously waiting for a letter she would never receive? Were the last words they exchanged harsh? Perhaps she regreted the way they had parted? Could the cowboy have been on the run from the law? Did he regret decisions that lead him to be far from home in an unknown land? Maybe he… there are infinite questions, infinite possibilities for regret that remain unanswered here on earth.

This story could seem hopeless, but Jesus knew who Cowboy was and welcomed him by name into heaven! Jesus offers all of us an eternal community where everyone knows your name without introduction! Ephesians 1:5 tells us, “God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children—this was his pleasure and purpose.”

Psalm 100:5 says, “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Jesus tells us that we never have to live in a world of regret, but one filled with grace and mercy. Isaiah 43:25 confirms this by saying, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

He also wants to protect us from the biggest regret we could possibly make and that is not accepting Him as Lord. Romans 6:23 warns, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And salvation is the greatest gift you could receive! It is the culmination of the ultimate example of love, combined with grace, forgiveness, and mercy that you simply receive and can’t possibly earn! Ephesians 2:8-9 confirms, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The great evangelist Billy Graham said, “I have never known anyone to accept Christ’s redemption and later regret it.”

So, if you are ready to leave a world of regrets behind, simply pray this prayer.

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.

If you prayed that prayer today Ephesians 2:19 tells you, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.” So my friend – Welcome to the family!