“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.  John 1:46 NLT

No one has ever fallen in love with Jesus because of another person’s story of faith.  At best, it only intrigued them enough to seek Jesus for themselves. Philip must have understood that because he urged Nathaniel to ‘come and see’Jesus himself. 

When someone pursues Jesus today, will He still reveal Himself personally?  Yes.  Some moments will be so dramatic that they will be described as mountaintops; others will be personal and profound and become a Bethel experience. These encounters will not be limited to unbelievers seeking to be saved.  They will also be for followers of Jesus who suffer monotony, who try to live on yesterday’s manna but come up empty. 

He implores each of us to seek Him relentlessly. Right now. The rest of today. Upon waking tomorrow morning.  He promises that He will be found!  He does not play hide and seek.  His glory will surprise us again and again at unsuspecting times and in unsuspecting ways. An ordinary day will be turned upside down as the eternal penetrates the temporal.  As He fills our field of vision, earth’s trinkets will no longer impress us.  They will cease to satisfy what we’re really craving. Those around us may not see all that is really going on, that we are in the middle of a holy moment.  We will know, however, as we draw in our breath and take off our shoes.  Even in the afterglow, our spirit will be hushed and dazed by the memory of it.  We will continue to tremble as the divine love story replays in our spirit.  

We will also know the frustration of trying to capture it in words for those closest to us. Ultimately, we will end up joining the many others through the ages who urged others to come and see for themselves.  Not all drop everything to seek Jesus.  They are content to be entertained by our stories.  They settle for a kind of second-hand faith, sometimes authentic but often inauthentic.  Faith for them is usually a casual thing.  But for each whose heart is stirred to personally taste and see that Jesus is glorious, life is never the same.

Jesus, You have met me in places too deep for words.  The wonder of it never leaves me.  Amen