The Invitation
Reading: John 1:43-50
Come and see this for a minute.
You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it. The whispered invitation and the frantic waving to come. The smile that comes when you see the child curled up sleeping with the puppy or the first flakes of snow falling; the wonderstruck expression when a simple turn of our head shows a sky at sunset that’s exploding with colours or the shaft of light that hits a piece of old glass and a once dull room is transformed into a myriad of rainbows.
Come and hear this for a minute.
Stopping, we put in the earbuds and hear a word, a poem, music that sets us dancing or a song that echoes right down into the deep places of our heart that needed to be lifted.
Come and try this for a minute.
Taking the socks and shoes off, we wade into dew-soaked grass and squishy earth. We feel the miracle of warmth when we rub our hands together quickly. We breathe.
These moments are nothing about what we’ve done, nothing about what we’ve planned. But we experience these irreplicable moments because we accepted an invitation.
So that’s how I’d like to begin this journey, if that’s ok with you. Not with pronouncements of prescriptions, but with an invitation to seek Christ together and live in the reign of God as much as we can. Together, we humbly ask God to show us where to look, what to listen to, where to go. God’s story has such a beautiful diversity of adventures that we’ll run out of time before we get to see all of them. Some are easy, some aren’t. Some are dazzling, and some take perseverance and questions and tough love to find where God is. We’ll journey together.
In the story above, Philip just says to Nathaniel, “Come and see”. Come and see who Jesus is for yourself. Come and live the story God has for you. That’s a good place to start. Welcome here. Welcome just as you are. And as I invite you to come and see Christ with me, I’ll learn from you, too, as we journey together.
To think about: Where are you seeing/hearing God’s invitations this week?