I See Jesus

A friend of mine reminded me to ask a very important question this week – Where is Jesus right now? It’s a question I first learned to ask in healing prayer. The Bible reassures us that God himself is with us always. Deuteronomy 31:6 (Msg.) tells us that “God is striding ahead of you. He's right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you” and Jesus himself tells us at the end of Matthew that “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Whether or not a person chooses to believe God is alive and present in their everyday life is irrelevant to the fact that he is. More often than not, a person will ask this question in angry sarcasm when some unthinkable tragedy happens – “So where was God when I lost my job and my house? Where was God when my child died?” Their pain blinds them to the truth – He is right there holding you in his arms, crying with you, holding your heart in his hands as the two of you walk through this tragedy together.

It’s been too long since I’ve ask myself, “Where is Jesus right now?” So this week I sought him out in the ordinary moments of my life. The first time he revealed himself, he was in the back seat of my car kicking my seat and making me giggle. How wonderful that he took the time to make me laugh and remind me of his joy instead of admonishing me for my absence. Twice in my prayer time, he was sitting right there beside me, praying with me. The most significant moment this week was while I was listening to music with friends. I saw Jesus and my son walking hand-in-hand out of a heavenly light as if to greet me.

I know that by admitting this, I might be making some of my more conservative family and friends uncomfortable and even leaving myself open to ridicule from my unbelieving friends. After all, Jesus doesn’t really appear to people anymore, especially not ordinary everyday people….does he? Aren’t people who say they hear or see Jesus in this day and age just suffering from hallucinations or, at the very least, victims of their own wishful thinking?

To this I can only answer—why wouldn’t he? He’s God! He humbled himself to become a man who first reached out to me through his life and his teachings and then willingly gave his human life for mine on the cross to spend eternity with me. His grace and forgiveness brought us together through his sacrifice and resurrection. Why wouldn’t he be with me where I am right now? Why wouldn’t he be protecting me and personally guiding me through life?

I know how hard it is for a parent to be separated from her child by death. If it were in my power to bring Bryan back to life – I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment. And once he was alive again – I would be with him always. I wouldn’t walk off and say, " see you around some day twenty, forty, sixty years from now." My Creator – my Heavenly Father – was faced with this same lonely separation from me.  I was dead in my sin. It was in his power to give me eternal life through Jesus’ sacrifice. He’s not going to wait a moment longer to be with me let alone the forty or so years I have left to live on this earth. He is with me now and always and his love will reveal his presence to me when I seek him with all my heart.

So tell me…where is Jesus right now?

About the pictures:
Deer Lake Park, PA (May 2010)