Do You Know How to Find Him?
A devotional by Ginger Solomon
“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
~John 20:2 (ESV)
Can you imagine Mary’s consternation when she went to the tomb, saw the stone rolled away, and Jesus’ body gone? The man she’d loved and cared for was GONE! He wasn’t where He was supposed to be.
Have you ever gone looking for someone or something and not found it where you thought you left it?
I do it with my phone and or iPad all the time. Those times are bothersome, but I don’t get overwrought. It’ll eventually show up.
Once when my girls were five and six or seven, they followed their older brother and his friend into the woods behind the house where we lived at the time. The boys ran and dodged them until they were lost. My son came home but said nothing about his sisters. Not long after, we received a phone call from a stranger. My daughters asked her to call us because they were lost and couldn’t figure out how to get home.
My heart jumped into my throat. They’d wandered to a house nearly a half a mile away. I was devastated and frightened. Had they not called, I wouldn’t have known where to look.
Mary Magdalene didn’t know where to look either. She told whomever she saw her predicament. She wanted help in her search.
I think much of the world has the same problem. They search for something elusive to fill the Jesus-sized void in their hearts. They turn to drugs, sex, alcohol, work, money. The list could go on and on.
Sometimes as Christians, I think we think our “service” fills the void. We say things like:
· “I go to church every time the doors are open.”
· “I serve in the choir, as an usher, and on the finance committee.”
· “I go to nursing homes, prisons, and help feed the homeless.”
But we can’t find Jesus in those places or in those activities. Just as Mary didn’t find Him in that tomb.
Jesus reveals Himself to those with a searching heart.
Mary was searching. She knew what or rather whom she was searching for.
And she found Him. Or rather, He found her.
John 20:14-16 (ESV), “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, 'Mary.'"
She turned and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher)
How glorious that must have been for her.
I know how relieved I felt when my husband drove up our driveway with my daughters firmly in tow.
One of those daughters recently wrote this monologue and performed it for our church. I’ve only included a snippet here, though the whole thing is powerful.
She said: “We can’t just build up a wall of fake smiles to keep God from seeing what He already saw and honestly, I can’t accept living life without Him because once you know what full feels like you cannot be satisfied with empty, and nothing else in this entire world can fill you like God does."
Click here to see the video of my daughter's performance.
Do you know how to find Jesus?
Honestly, it’s no further than your Bible. You will find Him there if you search for Him. Because Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV) says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Matthew 7:7-9 (ESV) says it slightly differently, but the essence is the same. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
It sounds trite. I know. And yet, the truth stands. If you’re truly searching and not just paying lip service, He will find you. And what a glorious day that will be.
~*~
Author Bio:
Ginger Solomon is a Christian, a wife, a mother to seven, and a writer—in that order (mostly).
She’s a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), president of her local writing group, and blogs regularly for InspyRomance.com and at gingersolomon.com.
