Voilà, this is Sanja. She is Finnish and has lived here for about 3.5 years now.
People often mix up our names or think we are sisters, not probably only because they think we look alike and speak the same strange language, but also because we often appear together. We met only twice before moving to Geneva, but here we’ve spent plenty of time getting to know each other. There would be hundreds of stories to tell about our shared moments, but I let Sanja speak for herself now:
“During the past three years or so, I have begun to discover my ‘identity in Christ’: an identity that is received from God through faith in Jesus Christ. It is an identity that doesn’t change and that cannot be taken away. It is a position that I have before God; being fully accepted and wholly justified by Him, due to Jesus’ sacrificial death and His resurrection. This identity is sure and solid, and it stays intact in any circumstance, external or internal. It is my deepest and my true identity, simply because God has so willed. I am His child.
This identity gives me freedom from making extensive efforts to make myself feel or seem worthy, because in God’s eyes, I already am. It liberates me to enjoy God in a personal relationship with Him, to walk with Him and to progress in His joy. Nevertheless, at times I find it hard to trust that God and my new identity in Him are enough. Yet, in the Scriptures, God reminds me that in Him all is complete, that my job is to hold on to Him and that He will guide me through.”
Surprised by the landscape 