“Among you stands one you do not know”

Many are insensible to the very presence of Christ, the one who loves and stands ready to forgive. It is easy to carp and crave, moan and weep, hurt and suffer alone, with no lasting comfort or hope for the future. The fripperies of entertainment, or the tedium of ordinary life, do not fill the inner life and leave us dissatisfied and often downcast in our spirits.

Most lives are empty and are longing for meaning and identity, and most do not even realise it. The world set up around us, in the cultures that human beings generate, disappoint and deniy the most basic of wants and needs, and the structures of life keep us blind and insensible to that inner call for significance. We tramp repeatedly circling through the barren roads of a ruined world, all hope evaporated, love lost and faith a candle almost snuffed out.

“The bruised reed, he will not break and the smoking flax he will not quench.”

This One who stands among us, is the very one we seek, and so he waits for us to come to our senses, open our eyes and see him in all his beauty. He demands nothing from us, as in reality, we have nothing to bring, but to bow our knees to his authority and find true freedom. It does not matter that we have little, because he himself will make up the deficite and give us power and great riches in our souls, so that we are filled wth all good things.

The fake loveliness of the world’s empty promises blinds us to this one true friend, who is prepared to forgive our rottenness and bring us to himself. The day our eyes are opened is the greatest day, because it is the day we see him, who has waited so long and wept for us in our folly.

“I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not.”

Now that we see the trivial nature of what surrounds us in this life, it all becomes so insignificant and unattratcive and no longer satifies the heart. Our souls belong to another, the Man who stands among us, and who has brought us into a new life with him.

Tragedy surrounds all, and every day is a reminder that things are not as they should be. Our need for change becomes more and more apparent, and the craving is redirected to the source of all life and everlasting good. When the possiblitiy for change becomes strong enough in us, and the growning sense of destitution of heart and soul, we seek this Lord of all things.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”

To discover his love and utter forgiveness brings the peace that nothing else can give. The well of life is in us and springs up to nourish and refresh like nothing in the human social system ever can. The unknown Lord becomes the close personal friend, who never abandons or gives up on us, or gets tired of our fallings and failings. He himself will bring us safely home to a place far away for all hurt and passing pleasures.

However, the possiblility that we remain blind and never know Him, nor realise what we are missing, is real for many. The moment of turning passes and passes many times until it fades away.

“My Spirit shall not always remonstrate with a person.”

We can miss out so easily and so carelessly, just by not following the words spoken into the heart, and fall into vacant compliance with the tendancies of the age we live in. Yet he still stands, unknown by so many, and still he waits for us so patiently to come to our point of turning, so that we can be rescued and know him and be like him.