5-4-20<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere Is Jesus?\u201d<\/p>\n
Some people in these troubled times call this out to the heavens, to God, to Jesus Himself as they deal with challenges to health, family, income, sanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is your Jesus now?\u201d<\/p>\n
That is a question that friends \u2013 skeptics, cynics, and non-believers, especially \u2013 ask in times like these. To certain people in this post-Christian culture, it is a rhetorical question, a taunt.<\/p>\n
This causes me to remember a challenging time of my own, and my family\u2019s: years ago my wife was listed for a heart and kidney transplant. Both organs were failing, and she was wasting away in hospital. My mother was near death in Florida, and I simply had to be there with my father. Driving to the Amtrak station, my car was T-boned and totaled at a Philadelphia intersection. My kids were staying with friends, but other challenges, including financial ones, loomed.<\/p>\n
Mercifully, a family of friends was watching my children; neighbors helped with food and bills. My pastor loaned us his SUV until we could get back on our wheels.<\/p>\n
And so forth. I could not be there for my mother\u2019s actual passing \u2013 which was hours after I left Florida to come home for Christmas. Nancy received her transplants on Valentine\u2019s Day, and lived another 16 years. Things worked out, in unexpected ways.<\/p>\n
When things returned to \u201cnormal,\u201d I gave thanks to Jesus in a conversation with a writer friend who was one of those skeptics. He said, \u201cWhy do you thank Jesus? Listen to yourself! It was friends who took your children in. It was relatives who helped with meals. It was your pastor guy who loaned you the car\u2026 Not your Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
I never had articulated the perspective properly before; but I quickly answered, \u201cThose things were<\/em> Jesus. He was just working through friends.\u201d<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n We are grateful, always, for gifts and givers. And we bless and thank recipients too, because they provide us opportunities to exercise charity<\/em>. Not only to do<\/em> love, but to be<\/em> love.<\/p>\n That is what God desires for His children, even if \u201cgetting there\u201d seems awkward to our little selves and our expectations.<\/p>\n Let God run His world. He doesn’t\u00a0 always require that we understand everything; just that we be obedient.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is your Jesus now<\/em>?\u201d skeptics ask now in these troubled days.<\/p>\n Of course a single death is grievous; and if it could have been prevented, tragic. But in the long view, I think this pandemic has caused more trauma, anxiety, dislocation, and grief, from fear<\/em> than from deaths; or possibly more than negative aspects of plagues in the past. Apart from things we cannot now know, like possible manipulation and skewed statistics and overreactions, we suddenly live in a dystopia, the opposite of a utopia. This revolving planet has come to a standstill!<\/p>\n Where is our Jesus? Of course He is still present. Behind the black storm clouds, the sun still shines. The One who created the entire universe is greater than microscopic viruses. Of course. Is there sin (and therefore death and disease) in the world? Yes.<\/p>\n Is a tiny virus, sweeping across continents, much different, really, than giant tornadoes, or massive floods, or unexpected earthquakes? No. Can plagues be prayed away? Sometimes, but mostly our duty is to cleave to the Word of God and trust Him.<\/p>\n \u201cThough you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil, for I will be with you.\u201d He does not promise a detour from that valley; or avoidance of what lies in the shadows\u2026 but for me, trusting that He is with<\/em> us is a real and present help in time of trouble.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n \u201cWhere is Jesus<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n There was a poignant time in history when that question was cried with intense emotion.<\/p>\n Actually, back to back: after Crucifixion, Christ was in the tomb for three days. Jews mocked. Romans dismissed. The followers of Jesus, despite having seen Him perform miracles and manifest the Incarnation, despaired. Even His mother grieved.<\/p>\n “Where is Jesus?”<\/p>\n Then He rose. Came back to life. In a restored body. As by a speedy miracle, as the word spread and people saw Him, the hundreds of prophecies became clear. He had foretold of His Resurrection, and by rising proved His divinity.<\/p>\n “Where is Jesus???”<\/p>\n Then for 40 days He roamed the land preaching. People saw Him; listened and believed. The skeptic called Thomas doubted, and was invited touch the wound that still graced His side.<\/p>\n Where is Jesus? WHERE IS JESUS?\u00a0\u201cLet\u2019s go down to the river and see the man who conquered death!!!\u201d Until the Ascension, Jesus spoke, ministered, and encouraged multitudes, as historical accounts affirm.<\/p>\n Between those appearances and rallies, He must have had quiet moments. He had to go from place to place. It was His practice during His earthly ministry to seek solitude at moments, and commune with the Father.<\/p>\n I have a little idea that during the quiet moments, maybe in dark nights between towns, He roamed alone\u2026 looking, perhaps, for individuals. Not crowds, but solitary souls wandering, maybe spiritually lost, who needed a touch of the Master\u2019s Hand.<\/p>\n In fact He is still doing that \u2013 seeking out lost souls who need the touch of the Master\u2019s Hand.<\/p>\n You might be one of those. In fact, we all are, at least at one time or another.<\/p>\n Where is Jesus? Closer than you think.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n