This week's devotional is brought to you by Christa. Enjoy! ~ Pastor Chris
By the time you read this, Chris is probably on his way to Ohio for a funeral service. Although he is honored and humbled to be the Minister at his uncle’s funeral, this was not something he thought he would be doing right now. Just a few weeks ago, Chris last saw his uncle over a video chat on the computer. His uncle was all smiles and completely healthy. One month later his uncle is no longer with us. His death, caused by a very aggressive brain cancer, was sudden and unexpected.
You can imagine how the family is feeling…devastated, heart-broken, hopeless.
Have you ever felt that way before? Devastated? Heart-broken? Hopeless?
Maybe your situation was different, but the emotions were similar…an overwhelming sense of loss. You felt like you lost hope. You felt like you lost faith. Even Jesus felt lost to you.
What do we do when we feel so lost? What do we do when it’s hard to find Jesus in all of this?
Did you know that at one point even Mary, Jesus’ mother, had a hard time finding Jesus?
His mom!
I don’t know about you, but I usually know where Silas is. It’s this keen hawk-eye ability that I think most moms have with their children. No matter what they are doing or where they are, our “mom sense” is on high alert.
And yet, Mary the mother of Jesus…the mom of the King of kings, the mom of the Savior of the world, the mom of the Alpha and the Omega…has lost Jesus!
Luke 2:41-45 tells us how it happened.
Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.
This story is the only Biblically recorded account from Jesus’s birth to His adult ministry. There are probably multiple explanations why we are given this account. But could one reason be because we all seem to “lose” Jesus at some point in our life? We’ve all been traveling down the path of life, and all of sudden we’ve lost Jesus. How? Here’s a few reasons…
-Sin
-Avoidance
-Rebellion
-Blame
-Busyness
So, what do we do? What do we do when we lost our way…when we lost Jesus?
Well, what did Mary do?
She went looking for Him!
When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. -Luke 2:45
They were already a day’s walk into their 3 day journey when they realized Jesus was missing. But as soon as they realized He wasn’t there, they went back.
It doesn’t matter how long you have journeyed, how far off you have strayed, how lost you feel - go back! Go back to Jesus.
Can you imagine how desperate Mary and Joseph must have been? I can picture them asking the other travelers, “Where is Jesus?”
On the streets of Jerusalem, “Where is Jesus?”
In the marketplace, “Where is Jesus?”
They searched. And searched. And searched. For three days! Until finally they found Him.
After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. -Luke 2:46-48a
Jesus wasn’t with the relatives. He wasn’t on the streets of Jerusalem. He wasn’t in the marketplace. He was in the temple.
Mary had to have been relieved. Her son was found! After three days of frantically searching!
Jesus responds to their searching with this question,
“Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” -Luke 2:49b
And I wonder if Mary thought to herself…if only I searched there sooner. How did I not know that there is where Jesus would be?
When we are lost, we should be desperate to find Jesus. But, sometimes like Mary and Joseph, we are looking for him in all of the wrong places. We say we want to find Him, but are we really going to where He is?
Or, at the end of the day do we realize another day has passed where we didn’t find Him again?
You might be asking the same question as Mary did when she was searching for Jesus…”Where is Jesus?”
Where is Jesus in my pain?
Where is Jesus in this mess?
Where is Jesus in our world?
Where is Jesus in my problem?
So…Where is Jesus????
He is right beside you.
Maybe Mary and Joseph’s biggest mistake was they assumed Jesus left Jerusalem. Could our biggest mistake also be that we assume Jesus left us? In our problems, pain, and trials we might not be able to see or feel Jesus, so we assume he left us. But just as Jesus never left Jerusalem, He has never left you either. Jesus was in Jerusalem, right where He needed to be.
And He’s right where you need Him to be too. With you.
His “Father’s Business” IS ABOUT BEING WITH YOU and offering you:
-Love
-Hope
-Forgiveness
-Redemption
-Strength
-Healing
-Restoration
-Unity
-Direction
-Wisdom
-And so much more.
Is something on this list lost from your life? Maybe all of them? It doesn’t have to be. Jesus can give you all that you need.
You just have to go to Him. You might search and search and search…but all of you have to do is turn to Him. He’s right there. He never left you.
So, GO FIND JESUS! He will be right where you need Him to be….right beside you.
You are in our prayers!
~ Christa
