After
leaving a hotel, my husband realized he had left his cell phone charger plugged
in the room. Thirty minutes later, we returned to the hotel to retrieve it. The
room had been cleaned and no charger was in sight. The manager said not to
worry it was probably in the lost and found room. My husband followed the man
down to a storage room. When the door was opened, my husband was astounded by the
magnitude of items. Shelves and shelves of cords and chargers were displayed.
My husband could not stop talking about this room chocked full of lost items and finding a charger in the midst of the sea of cords. It reminded me of all the “finding” I read in John 1.
There was a
man named Andrew who found Jesus and
asked him where he was staying because he wanted to hear more of what Jesus was
saying. Jesus told Andrew, “Come and you will see.”
After Andrew
found Jesus, the next thing Andrew
did was go and find his own brother
Simon (Peter) and he took him to Jesus.
The next
day, Jesus found Philip. Jesus told
Philip to follow him.
Philip went
and found Nathanael. He told him, “We
have found the one Moses wrote about
in the Law, and about whom the prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth—the son of
Joseph.”
Nathanael
was a little surprised and asked if anything good could come from Nazareth.
Philip
simply said, “Come and see.”
That’s a
great deal of “finding” in just ten verses. Jesus came to where Andrew was
first. Then Andrew found Jesus. He then shared his enthusiasm with his brother.
The next day Jesus found Philip. Philip shared the good news with Nathanael. There’s
as much sharing in this story as there is finding!
However, how
often do we share our salvation experience, our joy and hope with others? Quite often we get stuck on the “Me and Mine” path.
We want our children and our family to be saved. Our goal becomes to get me and
mine to heaven.
Understandably,
like Andrew, the first people we share our joy with are family members. Yes, we
should train and aim our children towards Christ. We pray earnestly for family
members to see their need for Christ and that God will draw them to Him.
But what about the little girl that lives in the undesirable neighborhood around the corner? What about the quiet co-worker who keeps to himself, or the loud, obnoxious student we avoid in the hallway? Or the old man with ragged clothes who sits at the gas station every day? What about those who already have their own god? Or those who have faith enough to believe there isn’t One?
Who will
find them?
I was
unworthy of the King of Kings coming to find me. But He did. Not only did He
love me enough to find me, He loved me enough to die for me. How can I not
allow Jesus to use me to show others the way to Him? Yes, I want me and mine to
be saved but there’s a world chockfull of people who have gone astray. It’s
overwhelming how many are lost in the entanglement of sin.
Who will I go
find this week to tell about Jesus? Who will you go and find?
It's not always
an easy task. But if you ask Him, the Manager will point the way.
He and all
His angels rejoice when each one is found.
