The earth burned hot, like fire beneath my feet, as I gazed up to what was four massive beings. Faces, like giants, staring outward.
Me, a child, sat in the dry air, with a big sky sprawling open around me.
People crowded. The faces of our past sat poignant.
Four presidents chiseled into rock. Like the hand of God was Michelangelo, and He carved these giant statues, so we might not forget our history.
The valley was deep, wide, colored like the most brilliant painter who took the time, to detail every crevass.
I was small, but still remember the taste of freedom, standing on the cliff of the Grand Canyon.
In awe of His goodness. Captivated by His depth of purpose. Sensing His love and goodness. Painted rocks echoed immense porportions of His grace.
No picture could do it justice.
As a child, I read about wonderous places. I learned in school about our nations landmarks, such as Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon.
But, there was nothing like standing on the edge of wide open, staring into the vastness of His goodness, feeling the wind around my face, and seeing the painted walls of the cavern for myself.
My husband just retired from a job he had worked at since we were children. He sweat and labored, worked, and learned how to interact with people, following the rhyms of his job, until his very last day.
Yet, he would tell me, there were times, young kids came from the University. They had a degree in business or management or sales, and somehow expected to understand everything…
As if education somehow compensated for experience.
It was a hard thing when some came with head knowledge, which Scripture said can “puff up” (1 Cor. 8:1), and expect to do the same thing someone who knows the land, the work, the numbers, and the people, has been doing for years and years.
And the truth is, learning about something and experiencing it firsthand, are vastly different.
There is no compensation for touching, tasting, and seeing things upclose, for real. Sensing, knowing, and being a part of what is happening in real time.
No relationship is formed, by just reading books.
Jesus died. And when He did, I think it can be easy to pick up Scripture and pretend that it’s all His obituary.
We can read his story, and somehow cerebrally comparmentalize His life, as if everything is black and white.
But, Jesus didn’t just die, and then go off and speak to His followers from the sky. He didn’t boom from heaven, gift us with His manuel, or leave us with words, like the Commandments on stone for us to read.
Emmanuel means, God is with us.
He is not far off, separate in the sky. He is not detached, unimpressed, and distant from our daily lives.
Our Lord is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), that embodies us. He is God WITH US. He died and put His Spirit within us.
“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)
And if God is in us, shouldn’t we have more than head knowledge and understanding ABOUT Him?
Jesus met two men on the road to Emmaus. They walked and talked ABOUT Jesus, not recognizing His presence. (Luke 24)
These two men were caught up on the death of Jesus, the narrative that was created. They missed entirely the resurrected Savior standing and walking alongside them.
But, before we judge them, I think so many of us can often live like this too. We can get caught up in the drama, replaying political events, remembering past tragic things that have happened to us recently…
That we forget…
There is a Savior that is near and is with us; here, even now, regardless of what we are going through.
This same Savior didn’t run from Thomas, the one who doubted flesh could resurrect.
He didn’t scorn or question the logic of his disciple who thought quite differently, because he didn’t have first hand experience.
Instead, Jesus drew near the doubter.
He approached, and even asked Thomas to touch his hands and wounded side. And then once Thomas had first hand experience, Jesus told him…
Stop doubting and believe.
Are you like Thomas, saying, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:24)
God is not a man that He should lie. (Numbers 29:13). And…
If Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people, ten different times, why do we minimize what He can do today?
Have we lost faith? Did we never believe? Have we put Jesus in some one dimensional box, and like God, think we have the right to tell Him what He can do?
Are we limiting the God of the Universe with our thinking? Our theology? Our ideas that lock Jesus up in His book and don’t let Him resurrect in our hearts today?
In John 16:7 (amp), Jesus said, “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you…
But if I go, I will send Him (the Holy Spirit) to you [to be in close fellowship with you].”
Jesus has not deserted us. In fact, He is so near we can feel His breathe, hear His small whisper, feel His very heartbeat within us. But first, we must believe.
We must ask Him to reveal His Holy Word and truth to us. Reveal His very self to us. We must step towards His broken body, like Thomas, and not run away from what He has for us.
I could have never traveled the United States as a child. I could have remained in my home, opened up a book, and read with just my eyes, the stories of all that had been created.
In doing so, yes, I could have imagined what it might be like to know a God who defied death and came to die and resurrect. But it is not the same.
What a gift, to actually experience God and all the things He has done.
To let the essense of His being drip down into our hearts, melt the jagged edges that have formed, and watch Him transform our very being.
Oh, how I want to experience God. Not just through Scripture, but in the way those on their way to Emmaus did; talking and walking with Jesus.
I want to:
- Hear him whisper as to Thomas, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:26)
- Run like Mary from the tomb, overcome with revelation of seeing Jesus (John 20:1-18)
- Be like Peter, who flew out of the boat to swim as close as he could get to his Savior. (John 21)
I want to shout like the disciples did to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord”.
God is so much more than a story. His is ALIVE. He is near us. He is Spirit.
Have you done more than read about Him? Have you experienced Him?
Oh friends, let’s bow our heads, and ask for more revelation of Him today!
“Do not imitate evil, but imitate good. He who does good is of God; he who does evil has not seen (discerned or experienced) God [has enjoyed no vision of Him and doesn not know Him at all].” (3 John 1:11 amp.)
