Where Are You?

When my boys were small a game came out called "Where's Waldo." The point of the game was to find "Waldo" in this huge crowd of people. My boys were rather good at finding him, however, I always had to stare at the crowd for hours and hours before I could see him. In fact, I've been looking at this picture for a while and I can't see him in there either. He seems to be invisible.

You know, I am sometimes invisible when I am out in the world or at church. I was noticing my body language yesterday at church and I was sitting there with my arms folded signifying I did not want to be disturbed. When welcome came, I just shook hands with the people who came to me. I never left the pew.

I am five foot nothing and you put me in a crowd and I am here to tell you, I disappear. If you don't believe me, come with me to one of the mega churches in our area and see how many people run into/over me. And if I get separated from my group, they can't see me in that mass of people and I surely can't see them. I just don't stand out.

But I know someone who did stick out. Crowd or no crowd, Jesus stuck out wherever He went. The Bible tells us over and over how the crowds followed Him, bumping Him and pushing Him. Yet, one small dying woman, desperate to be healed, crawled her way through the crowds and was able to touch just the hem of his garment and was instantly healed. And he didn't ignore her even though she was lost in the crowd. He stopped and asked His disciples, "Who touched me?" The disciples were dumbfounded by the question and told him that the crowd was touching Him everywhere He turned (Man! What a grasp of the obvious!). The disciples were so earthly oriented, they could not see one small woman fighting her way through the crowd toward Jesus. But Jesus knew. When He asked, "Who touched me?" the woman knew that HE knew for He felt the power go out of Him, so she confessed what she had done. And you know what He told her? He didn't scold her for her struggle to get to Him. He didn't ostracize her for touching Him without permission. He looked at her with eyes full of love and told her, "Your faith has made you whole."

Are we willing to struggle through the crowds to find Jesus? We're willing to spend hours trying to "find Waldo" but are we willing to put in the time and effort to try to find Jesus? I have to confess that I do pretty go most days, but some days I give it what my mom used to call "a lick and a promise, " which means that I will deal with it quickly and then promise to come back to it later. Sadly, as a general rule, I don't keep that promise. And if enough of those kind of days are strung together, I once again find myself lost in the crowd unable to see Jesus. I, then, promise myself I won't do it again, knowing full well that I probably will.

You see, I can't stay faithful without Jesus' help. It doesn't matter how short I am or how invisible I am to the crowd. I have to struggle against that crowd and find my way to Jesus, even if that means crawling through a tightly packed crowd and just touching the hem of his garment. For you see, as Jesus told the woman, it is my faith that will make me whole and I can't be whole if I let "the crowd" overwhelm me and keep my from my Lord.

I think I'll quit trying to find "Waldo" and go read my Bible and find Jesus.