Devotions
Loneliness. If you have ever experienced it, you know. Jesus felt it too on that night in Gethsemane. Throughout his life he had enjoyed the crowds in the temple, and he had experienced the closeness of those who followed him day and night listening to his teachings and experiencing his miraculous power. For three years he had savored the constant friendship of the twelve disciples, his closest chosen companions. Yet on the night that he needed them the most, in those final few hours of his life, they fell asleep. They abandoned him. They failed him in his hour of need.
What worries you today? What has robbed you of your peace, and the opportunity to sit at Jesus’ feet? Grab a pen and paper and write down your list: Is it the uncertainty of life surrounding you? Rebellious kids? Homeschooling? The loss of employment? Your shrinking retirement investment? Fear regarding your health as a result of COVID-19? To many Zoom meetings? What is it that keeps you awake at night?
The journey to Emmaus was both a physical and spiritual journey. Prior to this journey, so much had happened concerning Jesus, that it is no surprise that the two apostles were talking about these events. In fact, this is exactly what humans do when unusual things happen. We talk, and then talk some more. Right now, the whole world is talking about the Corona Virus; what exactly is it, where did it come from, and when will a cure be found…. Unfortunately, in the midst of talking the apostles failed to recognize, that Jesus had come up and was walking alongside them.
While visiting Kenya recently, I stopped by a local shopping center in the western part of the country. As I looked around the shops, I observed a woman emerging from a tiny kiosk with a young girl, about five years old, carrying a book bag on her back. As I watched them, the woman bent down and whispered something in the girl’s ear, simultaneously pointing towards a building which was about half a mile down the road. With that, the little girl began to run. I stood there glued to the scene, fascinated to see such a tiny child running such a long distance on her own. I watched her frame grow smaller and smaller as the distance between her and her mother increased. Occasionally, this precious child would slow down and begin to walk and her mother, who kept her eyes on her the whole time, would shout encouragingly, “Keep running, you’re almost there.” With every shout, the young girl who never once looked back, would once again break into a jog. Finally, she made it! As she turned into the building that her mother had pointed out to her earlier, the woman went back into her kiosk to serve her customers.
