October 8 – “Right in front of my eyes”

I went outside to get the morning paper the other day.  Not so different from any other day, I suppose.  It was somewhat early, perhaps just a little before six.  By most accounts the paper should have been here already.  It was not.  So I began my required gyrations in an effort to locate it.  Squat down on hands and knees to check under the car.  Now that is absolutely not an easy task with the present condition of my back.  Have to follow proper posture protocol to get down and back up.  Tighten the core.  Ease down.  Take a breath.  Lean over carefully to peer under car.  No paper.  Retighten the core.  Struggle back up.  Go back inside and continue my morning routine to give it some time to arrive. 

Get to a stopping place in that routine and head back outside again.  Paper is still not in its usual post-delivery area, just off the driveway on the lawn near the car.  Back inside to get a start on my morning blog.  Done. 

Finally, the sun rises.  I have an ally in my search, my one last-ditch effort before giving in and calling for a re-delivery.  Check in the garden.  Nope.  Walk down to the house next door to see if her paper has been delivered.  Yep.  It’s there.  Did he just forget me?  Where else could it possibly be?  I pondered those and other imponderable questions as Head down, I begrudgingly trudged back to the house to begin my workday. 

As I made my way between the car and the tree in the front yard something caught my attention, just out of the corner of my eye.  Slowly I turned my head, not certain that what I had glimpsed was anything more than a burst of blooms on the tree in the center of the yard.  I was partially correct.  It was on the tree.  It was not blooms.  Not unless the Galveston Daily News had contracted out with my tree to produce and print a newspaper.  Yep.  There it was, neatly snuggled in between two branches.  I walked past that tree any number of times, looking down at the ground, and never saw it.  Kind of like a lot of people do with Jesus.  Walk right past him, but they just aren’t looking in the right place.  I even knelt down right next to it as I searched under the car.  Kind of like some really good, church-going people who kneel down and stand up at all the proper places during church, but they never seem to get any satisfaction from any of it.  I walked completely away from it when I checked out the neighbor’s yard.  Plenty of people just walk away from their religious heritage altogether, totally disgruntled, searching everywhere else for peace and answers.  It wasn’t until I returned home, lifted my head up and opened my eyes, and took advantage of the light from the sun coming up that I located what was lost.  And there it is.  The answer is never very far away, because God is always pursuing us.  We just have to return to the basics – the good news that is Jesus, lift up our heads and open our eyes and take advantage of the Light that is right there.  And there it will be.  What we have been searching for all along.  Peace.  Fulfillment.  Purpose. 

Whoa.  I knew there was a teaching in there somewhere.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Father, thank you for being a Pursuer.  I sure missed finding you for a long time.  Thanks for sending the Light.  It makes the search so much easier.  Amen.