The One Question You Have to Ask

The bell was just about to ring for seventh period. That’s when a curly-headed preschooler with huge brown eyes popped his head around my door and said, Hi! His dimpled hand was attached to that of my dear friend who had taken the time to find my room, so she could say hello on her way to watch a middle school game in the gym.

We chatted for a second, and I gave that adorable little guy a sucker before the bell rang and they were gone.

Their surprise visit made my whole day.

You know? Having someone you love come looking for you?

For those of you following my saga of seeing how many years I can take to read my one-year-Bible, I’ll have you know I began Jeremiah today.

Only one chapter in, and the Lord raises a complaint against against his people. He recounts bringing them from Egypt, through a land of deserts, and into a fertile land. But when they get there they fail to ask one question:

“Where is the Lord who brought us up out of Egypt…?” (Jeremiah 1:6 NIV)

Their failure to ask this is so upsetting to the Lord that he complains twice:

The priests did not ask, “Where is the Lord?” (Jeremiah 1:8 NIV)

I imagine how God must have felt. If I had known my friend had been in the building but had not found me to say hi?

Sometimes it feels complicated, knowing this invisible God, but he makes it simple. Just come looking, he says.

The Israelites knew God in Egypt. The miracles. The freedom.

The Israelites knew God in the desert. The manna. The sandals that never wore out.

But the Israelites are in a new place now, and even though it is beautiful and good -they have not know the Lord here, and there is no hunger to search for him.

So I believe we need to enter every new place in life with this question of anticipation…

Where are you when I’m grieving? Where are you when I’m about to let this girl join her life with a husband? Where are you when I’m laboring over Spanish lessons? Where are you when I have insomnia? 

Not spoken like one abandoned.

Where are you, Lord?

But spoken like someone who only needs directions to find a friend in a new location.