![[Graphic of a Scripture verse]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t5Qp80wSXByJbU8wTu-PlRQb-1vW8IdkZJsR9cYBD0aLXJ5No8cXmzPyGIKP3_FeYmT_Od36Ou_M7u9qrQTa_LGCMdMO79R3i8cdZtq0pWA63EuBnBWFPUseYMaEw=s0-d)
| “…in Christ you have been brought to fullness…” |
| —Colossians 2:9b |
One of the more interesting periods of my life occurred when I moved from Hartford, Connecticut, to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, in September of 1976. The move occurred because, well frankly, I have a big mouth. In a meeting at the insurance company where I worked, several executives were trying to decide whether we needed to open an office in Florida.
At the time, Florida was under the oversight of our Atlanta Office. The distance from Miami to Atlanta was a healthy 662 miles. Even in the significantly large territory of Texas, it was only 634 miles from our Dallas Office to El Paso. So, if Florida was growing as fast as it appeared to be growing back in 1976, perhaps we really did need to open an office—most likely in the Orlando area.
In this meeting, I made the mistake of suggesting that we send an experienced engineer from Hartford to spend some time in the Florida territory and, while there, to evaluate the effectiveness of the long-distance supervision. The next thing I knew, I was watching all my belongings being loaded onto a moving van and I was on my way to Florida!
Ironically, close friends from Hartford had just been transferred by United Technologies Corporation’s Pratt Whitney Aircraft Division to the plant in Palm Beach County, Florida. They had begun to worship at a Plymouth Brethren Assembly, so we joined them. While there, we were introduced to an organization called the “Bible Memory Association” (BMA—now known as Scripture Memory Fellowship). These folks had developed a whole series of Bible memory booklets that would allow children and adults to competitively memorize Scripture verses. The children could earn points to attend a summer Bible camp. The adults could have fun competing with each other while learning key passages from the Bible.
My wife, Shirley, and I jumped into this new challenge. One of the first set of verses I learned was from Colossians 2:9-10. BMA materials all used the Authorized Version (also known as the King James Version) of the Bible. I can still hear the flow of that 17th century English:
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power…”
Suddenly, I was struck by these words of the Apostle Paul: “…ye are complete in him…” Think of that—“complete in him”! That’s amazing!
Not only has Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, but He has made us complete. Before we walked with Jesus we were incomplete. We didn’t know it, but a part of us was missing. We were not our true selves. We were not the people God created us to be. We were unfinished, lacking, not whole, incomplete.
“In Jesus, believers find genuine completeness.” That’s my thought for us today. “In Jesus, believers find completeness.”
There’s a famous line from the movie Jerry Maguire where Jerry, played by Tom Cruise, in a stark moment of tenderness professes his love for his wife, played by Renee Zellweger, with the words, “You complete me.”
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That kind of romantic vulnerability may seem maudlin to many people. But it is exactly that kind of intense emotional drama that takes place in the hearts and minds of believers when they finally realize that the new life they have in Christ far surpasses anything they may have heretofore experienced. Jesus completes us. We are complete in Him.
The New International Version, which I more often than not prefer for my Scripture reading, states these same verses from Colossians 2:9-10 as follows:
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
Jesus completes us. He has brought us to fullness. We did not realize it, perhaps, but we had a vacant place in our hearts and minds. Jesus has filled that vacant space and, in so doing, He has brought us to fullness.
As we begin this day, let us banish all sense of lack in our lives. Let us recognize that in Christ we have been brought to fullness. We are, indeed, complete in Him.
“In Jesus, believers find completeness.”
