“This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’” (Luke 2:12-15) NIV
Random Thoughts:
God wants to be found. And most of the time, we want to find Him. Trouble is, finding God often means setting aside our preconceived notions of what that will look like. Imagine being told we will find God in the squalid conditions of a dirty animal stall? Would we see Him? Or imagine that God entrusts his most precious message for humanity to an illiterate, impoverished band of sheep herders? Would we hear it?
For those of us raised in the church I think we expect--and with good intentions--hope to first discover God within the walls of our place of worship whether it’s during an evangelical program or during catechism when we turn 12. Some even schedule the dates and times of “revival” on calendars, programming the arrival and work of the Holy Spirit himself.
For some of us, God will meet us for the first time in those places and during those moments. But I think for many of us God finds us when we least expect it and He reveals Himself in a way that takes us by surprise.
When God finds us on His terms it reminds us that He is not a God we make in our own image who conforms to our limited notions of who He is and how He works. We often want to “civilize” our God, to make Him manageable, predictable and safe. But He is none of those. He comes to us when our own ways and means aren’t working; He asks us to rethink our spiritually grand expectations to accept His humility; and He asks us to embrace all His messengers both the heavenly and the most down-to-earth.
Question:
Has God ever come to you in an unexpected way? What message did He bring that you needed to hear?
Journal Response:
God got my attention for the first time when I was 8 years old. Taken by my sitter to a quaint old church on what was apparently the last day of a VBS program, it stands out in my memory for two reasons: 1) reciting words I didn’t understand at the altar call, my childish mind did understand one thing, that I wanted God; and 2) I have never had to go to the bathroom so badly as I did on that brutally eternal and bumpy car ride home.
It was ten years later before God got my attention again. One afternoon a girlfriend mentioned Jesus. She was talking about Him as if He was her best friend, as if that was the most normal thing in the world.
And just like that, God jump-started what He began when I was eight.
That night alone in my room, cross-legged on my bed, I held my parents’ black leather King James Bible, a book they used to read before they claimed that hypocrites gave them a reason to close it and put it away on a shelf. I opened the cover, cracked with age, and flipped through onion-skin pages that crinkled like tissue paper.
And then I prayed. No frills. No “thee’s” and “thou’s” and no words recited that I didn’t understand. I simply asked God to show me Jesus. I began reading Matthew. And then an hour later it happened. God answered my prayer in red letters. “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest...” (Matt. 11: 28)
That’s what I wanted. I wanted that. Rest. I wanted Him--the one who seemed to understand with unconditional arms opened wide that I was tired. So very tired. For 18 years I had believed that being loved and accepted happens when you succeed, when you reach a goal, perform a task or give the right answers.
But what do you do when the goal line keeps changing? Because it does. Vice presidents are pretty good but then why aren’t you president? Second seed tennis is pretty good, but why aren’t you first? And only perfect children can keep their parents from fighting. So, what happens when you can’t? What happens when you aren’t perfect no matter how hard you try? What happens is God shows you Jesus, written in red letters. He shows you that His love has no conditions. He tells you that He loves you and accepts you as you are. And you can hardly believe it. But you want to. And so what happens is you take the rest of your life learning to believe it and being grateful it is true.
25 years later, God is still telling me how much He loves me. I hear it in the songs I sing at church, I see it in the crazy enthusiasm of my dog at the door, I feel it in the so-quick-to-forgive hugs of my children when I am a crabby mess, and in the patient cheerleading of my loving husband. Most of all, God continues to tell me in red letters, words I recite and now understand. A little more.
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