“You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” – John 7:34
Like the Jews who heard Jesus speak these words, I wonder what Jesus means when he says this. I wonder why we won’t find Jesus, and why we can’t go where he is.
If we will not find Jesus when we look for him, then why are we constantly seeking him out? Why are we searching for Jesus? Why are we labeling curious potential Christians as “seekers”?
If we can’t go where Jesus is, how are we supposed to answer his call to “Come and see,” to follow him, or to “Come to the table”?
Last week, Lisa and I traveled to Columbus, Ohio to visit friends. Thursday night, we planned to meet up with our friend Nate for a hockey game. When we got to the arena, we called him. He was on the west side of the arena, but we were on the east side. So we agreed that we’d walk toward each other until we found each other. But somehow, we didn’t meet in the middle. We got all the way to the west side – where he started – without meeting up with him. We look for him, but we didn’t find him. He looked for us, but he didn’t find us.
After calling Nate again and discovering we had walked right by each other, we agreed to stay put while Nate came to find us. That way, we’d be sure to meet up without walking past one another.
If I hadn’t been so impatient to “find” Nate, we probably would have met up more easily. But I wanted to go find him. I wanted to be the seeker. It was more fun that way. Yet since we were both “seeking” each other, we walked past one another. Not until I gave up control and let Nate seek me did we finally meet up.
Are you looking for Jesus so much that you keep walking right by? Are you so caught up in your search that you’re moving too quickly past Jesus for him to recognize you? Or are you letting Jesus find you?
No comments:
Post a Comment