Project 119: Heaven and Nature Sing | John 10

 |  Project 119  |  Tim Sanderlin

Reading for Friday, December 18: John 10

And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heaven above,
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.
-"Once in Royal David's City"

I have seen thousands of pictures of Jesus, as a baby, in a manger. I have played the role of Joseph in the Living Nativity well over a dozen times. At times, especially the time surrounding Christmas, it is easy for me to see Jesus as the baby born in Bethlehem. 

While this is not a bad thing, sometimes my understanding of who He truly is (what He actually looks like) gets foggy. And I don’t mean, “I wish someone had taken a Polaroid of Him while He was in the synagogue.” I mean, “I seem to lose sight of what Jesus is doing in my life and in the world around me.” I see Him lying in a manger and I tend to leave Him there. I guess the real question I ought to ask is, “What has Jesus been up to since that night in Bethlehem?” 

The key to our faith is not being able to pick out Jesus’ face in a line up, it is knowing His character so intimately that we can simply hear His voice and know it is Him who speaks. We get a good glimpse of God’s character from the Old Testament’s encounters and commandments, and an even better one from the incarnation of Christ. But knowing about Christ is different from seeing Him and knowing His voice: “When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice” (John 10:4 NIV). 

In the season to come, let’s pray that we would look for Jesus outside of the manger, for He is not there anymore. Let’s pray that we would look for Him outside of the tomb, for He is not there anymore either! Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is moving and working at all times. May we seek Him, see Him, and draw so near to Him that we recognize His voice, and then follow Him to the very end of the age.