Maggie is a wonderful dog...
Illustration
Maggie is a wonderful dog. She is loyal, obedient, and good. She is practically perfect in every way, except ... well ... she's not real smart when it comes to pointing. Not her pointing ... her master's pointing. When he gets out a doggie treat for Maggie and drops it on the ground. she walks right by it. So he says, "Maggie, get your treat." She knows the word treat and so she gets excited and she starts prancing around, but she doesn't see the treat. So he points to the treat and says, "It's right there, Maggie," and Maggie dutifully looks at his hand. She doesn't know that his pointed finger is a symbol for what is "over there."
Sometimes, especially in our lives of faith, we are like Maggie. Loyal, obedient, and good, of course, but not real smart when it comes to the pointers that God has given us. We equate the pointer with the object we seek. Cleopas and his friend couldn't see beyond their limited understanding of Jesus to the truth of who and what and why Jesus was. They knew the stories of Jesus, but they also knew Jesus was dead, and they could not see the possibility that the story wasn't over. But we are smarter than that, aren't we? Don't we know by now that with God the story is never over? Or is it possible that Jesus is so fully defined in our minds that we would not recognize him if he stood right before us?
Who defined Jesus for you? What picture do you see in your mind? Jesus on a cross? Jesus feeding the multitude? Jesus healing the leper? Jesus teaching in the synagogue? Jesus born in a manger? Jesus weeping in the garden? Jesus overturning the tables in the temple? Jesus raising the dead? Jesus breaking the bread? Jesus walking through walls? Jesus ascending to heaven? Will the real Jesus please stand up?
The truth is that Jesus is all of these and more. Each of these images of Jesus is a symbol that points to God. May our eyes be opened to God's new truth today.
Sometimes, especially in our lives of faith, we are like Maggie. Loyal, obedient, and good, of course, but not real smart when it comes to the pointers that God has given us. We equate the pointer with the object we seek. Cleopas and his friend couldn't see beyond their limited understanding of Jesus to the truth of who and what and why Jesus was. They knew the stories of Jesus, but they also knew Jesus was dead, and they could not see the possibility that the story wasn't over. But we are smarter than that, aren't we? Don't we know by now that with God the story is never over? Or is it possible that Jesus is so fully defined in our minds that we would not recognize him if he stood right before us?
Who defined Jesus for you? What picture do you see in your mind? Jesus on a cross? Jesus feeding the multitude? Jesus healing the leper? Jesus teaching in the synagogue? Jesus born in a manger? Jesus weeping in the garden? Jesus overturning the tables in the temple? Jesus raising the dead? Jesus breaking the bread? Jesus walking through walls? Jesus ascending to heaven? Will the real Jesus please stand up?
The truth is that Jesus is all of these and more. Each of these images of Jesus is a symbol that points to God. May our eyes be opened to God's new truth today.
