Day 8 - Looking for God

Perhaps I have noticed this before and forgotten, but I was surprised by it this morning. 

McKnight starts today's thoughts with the story of Abraham waiting at the entrance to his tent and 3 visitors showing up.  (Gen 18)  As the story goes on, those 3 visitors turn out to be the LORD.  From this, McKnight makes his first point - look for God in others.  As McKnight says here, "What they thought were human visitors to whom they showed hospitality was the presence of God. Sometimes we see the face of God in others, and they are not always angels." 

That was a good point, but what I thought was neat was that 'the LORD' appeared first in the form of 3 persons...  the trinity perhaps?  Just thought that was kind-of cool and hadn't remembered noticing that before.   

McKnight also calls us to look for God in disguise (the man on the road to Emmaus who was later revealed to be Jesus) and then finally to look for God at the table (in communion).  This last one was a refreshing way for me to consider thinking about times where I take part in communion with other believers.  I can too often go through the ritual without 'seeing Jesus' as I should during that time.  I like this:

The God of the Bible shows up in ordinary ways, daily, in ordinary things for ordinary people. If you want to be shown the face of God, come to the table, and you will see the God who gives himself for you and who invites you to feast on himself. There, in that small meal, you will find forgiveness, grace, mercy, power, and—most of all—fellowship with God and with one another. At the table we experience the love of God that put the Jesus Creed into motion.

He finishes with this verse:

“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened,

and they recognized him.”

—Luke 24:30–31

Again, a verse I've seen a million times but had not noticed these last few words, "and they recognized him."  How often in any given day, at any given time, is Jesus right beside me and I just look past him - not opening my eyes - not taking time to notice - not seeing - that he is right there.  All I need to do is open my heart to recognize him.