Finding Him
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Straight to the Cross
COLUMN: Thankful
Finding Him
by A. A. Neale
"Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I
might come to His seat!" (Job 23:3, NJKV).
Dear Friend Job,
You certainly had a rough time of it, my old man.
And who can blame you for the bitterness you felt,
since you couldn't see anything that was going on
in the background?
As early as you appeared in the Sacred History,
you didn't have much advantage either. You didn't
see the great acts of God in behalf of his people.
Much less did you have the view of God in the
flesh.
Where to find God? That appears to be our dilemma,
doesn't it, my fine patriarch? But it turns out
that question is barking up the wrong tree. For
God is there, ever present, every watching over
his own.
Though that kind of language can certainly be
justified, and especially in your case, turns out
that God has already found us. And, without making
a game of it, God lets himself be found by his
creatures.
- After a fright from the angel of the Lord,
shepherds found Jesus lying in a manger and
wrapped in swaddling clothes (Luke 2:12, 16).
- Oriental wise men were led by a star, not by a
King, to find the young Child and worship him
(Matt. 2:1-2, 8, 10-11).
- After a panic, Jesus' parents find him chatting
in the temple with the scholars (Luke 2:46).
- In two similar moments, Andrew runs to a brother
and Philip, to a friend, to say, "We have found
the Messiah!" (John 1:41, 45).
- The disciples find Jesus, having risen early to
find a secluded spot to pray, only to get
themselves rustled into a preaching trip (Mark
1:35-38).
- Bread-seeking multitudes find more than they
were looking for, they found the Lord, for all the
good it did them (John 6:25).
Jesus will even talk of the nature of the kingdom
of Heaven as a man finding a treasure in a field
or an extremely expensive pearl on the market
(Matt. 13:44, 46).
You, Job, who searched so much for God, might
consider it unfair that Isaiah can be so bold to
say, as Paul will later quote him, "I was found by
those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to
those who did not ask for Me" (Romans 10:20).
When Jesus was on earth, it might have been easier
to find God, if people had realized, with
Nathanel, who he actually was. Which makes me
think how much easier it is for me today, Job, to
find God, more so that even in Jesus' day, or
yours.
Or is it?
It's hard to find God past the Christmas tinsel or
the court battles to "put Christ back in
Christmas," whatever that's supposed to mean.
It's hard to find God in that contemporary music
they call Christian, but tastes commercial and
sappy as secular pop stars (not to mention the
instruments).
It's hard to find God in the fast action of mega-
churches or in the shallow sermons of pastors and
preachers.
It's hard to find God even in the stars anymore,
what with all the pollution, street lights, and
scientific searches for ETs.
So maybe you and I aren't so far apart after all,
Job. Our boils just take a different shape, maybe.
So scoot over, make room, and we'll scrape them
with a piece of broken pot.
And while we scrape, let me pull out a battered
old piece of leather with a few leaves in between
to read and pass the time.
Since we have no stars zipping across the sky. No
brilliantly lit angel to send us scurrying. No
Transfiguration to leave us ga-ga. No quiet
miracles to cause a ruckus in the crowds.
Just you and me, Job. And an old book.
Where do you want to start?
"Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon
Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6).
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