Okay, now that St. Patrick’s Day is officially past us, I can tell you how much this ‘holiday’ bothers me. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with people having fun, or even the silliness that ensues over clothing or adding food coloring to food and drinks. The part that bothers me most is – nobody even seems to know who this guy was!
St. Patrick was no four-leaf clover holding leprechaun with green knickers, pinching people over their wardrobe choices with one hand while holding a beer with food coloring in it with the other.
The real Patrick was a man who, in his youth was captured by pirates, taken to Ireland, and then enslaved. After spending 6 long years in this situation, he finally managed to escape. Then he did something that seems unfathomable. He returned to the place of this nightmare as a missionary, bringing Christianity to the country.
This man - whose name is only typically spoken of in the U.S.A. in reference to what color clothes you are wearing or how much beer you can drink - was a fearless, mission-minded Warrior armed with the gospel of Christ. Basically, he single-handedly brought the gospel stories to the shores of Ireland.
Instead of a small fellow kicking his merry little feet on your child’s cereal box, he is more closely attuned to this passage from the great Apostle Paul:
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. (2 Timothy 1:12)
#LoveMatters