Monday Meditation: He’s Alive! Part 2: They couldn’t see who he was
Why didn’t the two men on the road recognize Jesus?
Was it because they were walking westward in the late afternoon and the sun was blinding them?
Was it because Jesus appeared as just another ordinary dude (not angel-like and dressed in white like today’s Bible art)?
Was it because the stories they’d heard about him being alive sounded like fake news they couldn’t believe was true?
Was it because God miraculously prevented them from recognizing Jesus so they (and we) could hear his explanation of ancient prophecies promising his resurrection?
All these explanations (and more) have been offered, but for today the why doesn’t matter most. Today let’s focus on the what: God himself was walking beside them, and they had no clue.
I wonder how often God has shown up in my life and I haven’t noticed.
I’ll hasten to add I think it’s dangerous to attribute every happy turn of events to God. I can’t claim that every bargain deal or close parking space or chance meeting with a good friend was orchestrated by the Almighty.
Two choices
But when I’m praying for peace and soon I feel calm, when I’m begging for strength and I manage to get through another day, when I ask God for wisdom and the doctor offers a solution that makes sense—when I pray for and then discover the resources I need to cope with caregiving—I have two choices.
I can believe it all worked out because things usually work out.
Or I can thank God for how he moved in the situation.
I don’t claim to understand this. I don’t believe God owes me solutions or some special interventions. But I’m learning to realize he often was standing beside me, even when I thought I was handling it all by myself.
And when it seems as though I can’t cope anymore, I remember such times and “with thanksgiving present” my “requests to God.”
Trembling within
As soon as the two men finally recognized Jesus, he disappeared. They looked at each other in disbelief and said, “Were not our hearts burning within us when he talked with us?”
We could pray to experience something similar. We could seek the exhilarating tremble of realizing we have been helped by a force we did not manufacture, a power we could not control.
And like these two in this story, when that happens, we’ll know we want to tell others what God has done.
Read: Luke 24:13-35
Pray: Open our eyes, Lord, to what you’re doing in our lives. Give us courage, dear God, to seek the help only you can give today and every day this week.
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