Come And See

The story is told of a young man being baptized in a river by an old preacher.  When the preacher pit him under the water and brought him up, he asked, "Have you found Jesus!"  The young man, wanting to be honest, said, "No."  So, the old preacher dunked him under again and brought him up asking again if he had found Jesus to which he answered no again. The old preacher repeated the process several times asking the same question, getting the same answer. Finally the young man, nearly drowned by all the dunking answered, "I still didn't find him but are you sure he's down there?"

The truth is that Jesus might not necessarily be where we are looking for him. He might not be in our comfortable homes or in our surburban communities. He might not be in our sanitized church buildings or our bountifully spread fellowship dinners. He might not even be in our Bible study groups or Sunday morning assemblies. 

Instead, he may be down at the men's shelter or staying at a house in the worst part of town. He might be spending time in a local jail or at the hospital. He might even be out on the streets. Jesus is like that, you know. He is where he is needed and responds to those who are crying out for him. He often shows up at the worst places. 

How do we know?  How do we know where Jesus is staying?  He answered this question to a couple of seekers in John 1:39, "Come and you will see."  

Yes, we need to spend time in our homes and communities and church gatherings, but there are times when we need to leave our comfortable surroundings and seek Jesus in the dark and dirty places. The only way to see where else he might be staying and how we might serve with him is to come and see. 

Jus' Sayn.