How silly a statement is that? Warning Christ’s Church that CHRISTIANS walk among them! I mean, after all EVERYONE in Christ’s Church IS a Christian, right? I don’t mean everyone who may show up at Easter or Christmas because they think that will score them points with God and get them to Heaven, but those who are disciples of Jesus and have welcomed Him as their Lord. Well, of course they are Christians. My question to you is do YOU accept all those who claim Christ as their savior as your Christian brothers and sisters?

You’re probably thinking “of course I do, why wouldn’t I?”

Yes, this is for ALL Christians. People who claim Christ as their savior. You probably attend church every Sunday. I do. You probably pray to our Father in Heaven and THANK Him for His kindness and mercy. I do. At some point in the past someone told you about Jesus, what He did on the cross for you and when given the opportunity to accept the fact that Jesus died for the SIN in your life your said “I do”. So did I. You go to church every Sunday, or maybe even a Saturday service. And even though you may not personally know the person sitting next to you, you smile, greet them, shake their hand and accept them as fellow believers in Christ – they are ONE OF YOU. SO AM I!

And of course you’re right, welcoming believers into your life, sharing the Lord’s Supper with them, even sharing a meal with them – be it a church “pot luck” or an invitation into your home is what we do. This is a fellow believer – someone who has devoted themselves to Christ and His teachings. Maybe you’re part of a home Bible study, you probably know some better than others, but that doesn’t bother you because you’re all believers, you’re all part of Christ’s body.

Well, I walk among you. People like me walk among you. Based on pure statistics, if you go a church of around 300 members, then someone like me may be sitting next to you. A church of one thousand – there are probably three like me at your church. I’ve belonged to VERY small churches, I’m talking like 30-40 people and I walked among them. I love Jesus and they knew it. I wanted to serve Him and they knew it.

What they didn’t know is that I’m transgender. I was born a boy but had surgery years before they knew me to make my body come closer to alignment with the person that I’ve always been. Even at my own church today, a church of around 3,000 only a very small handful know I’m transgender. 2,985 of them don’t know that the Laurie they know wasn’t born female. There are those at my church who if you asked right now might say there is no place for someone like me at their church. Yes, it’s a work in progress. The good part is that I don’t know who they are and they don’t know who I am – so we’ll just have to get acquainted, learn to love each other and maybe God will present an opportunity to open their eyes. Maybe He won’t. It’s a one person at a time kind of thing.

You might be surprised to learn that you’ve talked to someone who is transgender, you’ve hugged someone who is transgender, you’ve maybe even prayed over someone who is transgender. You’ve done everything you would do for ANY Christian brother or sister, the difference being they might have been transgender and you didn’t know that. Would that have changed your prayer? Would you no longer hug that person who needed that hug in that moment? Would you have walked away rather than have a congenial conversation with them had you known they were transgender?

Your Christian brothers and sisters who are transgender ARE your Christian brothers and sisters. To think anything else is contrary to what our Lord Jesus taught. Your personal opinion is just that – your personal opinion and I’m not trying to change that, just how you consider Christians who are transgender as fellow believers. We love our Lord, the one who died on the cross for us every bit as much as anyone. We fully appreciate what He did for us and what that means. The fact that we’re transgender has nothing to do in any respect to our relationship with Christ. I loved Jesus before my surgery and I love Him even more after. And I was transgender the whole time, before and after – only the outside changed.

It’s such a NATURAL thing to see the outside change and think something must have changed INSIDE. But the FACT is that nothing changed inside, only the outside. The person who was loved and cherished is STILL the same person, just wrapped in maybe a new package.

Our Father loves us ALL. We need to love each other as brothers and sisters. I know it may be a hard adjustment for you, but you can do it. If you don’t think so, then contact me directly – let’s get acquainted. I’m not a “charmer” but I think you’ll find I’m just a normal person like anyone else you know and I love Jesus just as much as you do. After all, He saved my life just as He saved yours!