A Beautiful Symphony
by Dennis Jaeger
Twenty-three years ago I came to Impact for the first time with my youth group from Oklahoma and met a seven-year-old Geremy Varner, who is now Impact’s Middle School Youth Minister. I also met two girls, one the same age as Geremy and the other three years older. They were still in the youth group together when, nineteen years ago, I became a youth minister at Impact. At one point all of them lived in the same apartments. They sat in Bible studies together, worshiped alongside each other, went to camps and mission trips together, and even spent their summers interning with our children’s programs together.
Today, I am celebrating all three of them as I recently witnessed Geremy baptize three youth – the children of his two Impact peers. I can’t begin to express the joy I experienced during those moments. I am in awe of our God. I am in awe of the quiet service and love given by so many who have poured into these individuals, and in turn, the service and love they now pour into others.
There is so much to observe in these moments: God’s vision that far outsees our own as he creates a beautiful symphony from our lives. The longevity of Impact and its service in the heart of Houston. Amazing, Spirit-filled young people providing hope not only for the future, but in the here and now. The life-changing impact that fledgling, broken, sincere hearted, Jesus-followers can have on the world around them. The necessity of seeing beyond a particular moment (all four of us have had our “moments”) – people are never “done.”
We have an awe-inspiring God, and I will not be shocked when one of those three baptized young men take the torch and baptize the children of one of their fellow youth group members into Christ. What a beautiful, never-ending symphony!
