What happened? What went wrong? Why do I feel this way? I feel derailed, confused, disappointed, angry, hopeless, like something is missing. How did I end up here? Those, and other similar questions, are questions we all wrestle with at one time or another. Even Eve, God’s first created woman, wrestled with a question, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” Little did Eve know that her answer to that question would change the fate of the world.
Eve’s answer hurled her and us headlong out of a place of comfort and joy to a place of many sorrows, a place where God never intended her or us to be. At a glance you might conclude that it was all over …..but God had a question of His own, “Where are you?” Three words that beckoned Eve to come out of hiding, to come to her Father, Creator, God, with all her stuff, wrong answers and all, come just as she was. God knew what Eve did not. The only fix for all she had done was God. Eve would never be able to fix herself. So God called her out of hiding to fix her. God took her best she could do fig leaves and clothed her with His very own sacrifice. Fast forward……
There were shepherds watching over their flocks by night. Suddenly, angels appeared announcing the long awaited answer to all of life’s questions. But wait, there was an action required of them. They must go. They must leave the familiar in search of a Savior. Did other shepherds hear? Did they toss dice to see who would go and who would stay? All we know for sure is, some left everything to go. Fast forward…..
Shepherds, unlikely guest of the new born king would be followed by even more unlikely guests, wisemen from the east. Hardly sounds like a guest list for a Savior. Rest assured this was a carefully laid plan that would change the fate of ALL people. Off they go, shepherds and wisemen searching to find the answer to the same age old questions. If shepherds could find a manger, if wisemen could follow the star, if all could make this grand discovery, then all the answers to all of life’s questions would be answered once and for all. If at end of their quest they could find the Savior, they would indeed find themselves.
Since we are made in the image of God we can never find where we are or who we are outside of Him. Jesus, God’s Son, wasn’t born in hiding and He isn’t hiding now. Anyone could have found Him but it was the lowest of the low and highest of the high that made the effort. I wonder how many others could have but didn’t? Did the angels make the grand announcement to others who were too busy, too skeptical, too blind, too deaf, too bitter, too angry, too discouraged, too prideful, too complacent, too satisfied, too comfortable to listen to the message of the angels? Would I listen? Would you listen? Would I go? Would you go? Would I take or would you take the journey without knowing the details, without knowing exactly who, what, when or how? Could we go without knowing how it would end or what might happen along the way? Would we travel willingly without fully knowing the cost of the journey?
The Way is a narrow path because there aren’t many that are willing to find it. But maybe, just maybe, you and I will be numbered with the few that are found willing.
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