This is inspired by one of the parables my friend Jim Drummond wrote many years ago when he was a Sunday School Superintendent.

I remember as a child waiting at a railroad crossing and counting the railroad cars from different lines that passed by: Santa Fe, New York Central, Burlington Northern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and others. The crossing was a New York Central, but the reason for the different kind of cars was that all of the railroad lines were built using the standard gauge; that is the distance between the rails was 4ft, 8.5in. Hence a Union Pacific boxcar could travel from the west coast to the east coast travelling on the rails of different railroads as it went without ever having to be offloaded. With the exception of a few narrow gauge lines leading to mountain mines, all lines in the U. S. use the standard gauge.

This was not always the case. During the Civil War, the South’s railroads were not only fewer in number, but also inefficient, since different lines used different gauges. This meant that freight often had to be offloaded from one line to another. The North on the other hand was already using the standard gauge. Most railroads around the world have converted to standard gauge, but in some cases the conversion came more recently than you might think. Paulette and I have an acquaintance in Australia who worked for a railroad. She said that until the 1970s there were several Australian lines that had a wider than usual gauge; they hauled heavy loads of coal and ore to several iron smelters. While this enabled them to have larger hopper cars, it was inconvenient for any other kind of freight.

There are many different Christian churches: Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Seventh Day Adventists, Pentecostal Holiness and many others. There are major differences between them, but there is a standard gauge that enables all to carry the freight of promulgating the Gospel. That standard gauge is Jesus.

Read about a similar New Testament situation in Acts 2:5-13 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Jim