Overlooking the Obvious - by John Grant

Hunting season has arrived, time to take out the camo, sight the rifles and head for the woods in high hopes that this year will be the year to bag the big trophy. It’s a guy thing.

My friend dropped me off at my chosen stand, one of my favorites. The weather was overcast and raining intermittently. From my vantage in the stand, I could see panorama overlooking a peanut field with heave woods on both my left and right. I kept monitoring all points of view waiting for the big one to walk out.

Suddenly, I saw movement in the woods and then saw a doe and two small fawns walk out into the open. They were fun to watch and I enjoyed viewing them until it was almost dark.

When my friend came to pick me up, he asked why I didn’t shoot. He had been watching from a stand across the field. I told him that the three I saw were too small to shoot and he said he wasn’t talking about those, but about the trophy buck that came out on my left not more than twenty yards from my stand. I then realized that I had been so concentrating on the watching the smaller ones that I had neglected to continue looking in all directions. In doing so, I had missed the obvious and lost the opportunity to bag the big one on the first day of the season.

Have you ever been in the position of looking for something you need and not being able to find it? It happens to me all the time, but then I call for my bride, who can find anything and suddenly there it is. I’m sure it wasn’t there before. I couldn’t see for looking.

But the same thing happened with John the Baptist. He was like us, looking for the Christ. That’s what he said his job was all about. And when the time came he couldn’t see for looking. Twice he says that he did not recognize Jesus. He couldn’t see for looking.

John, baptizing away in the Jordan was probably on remote control. Another lot to baptize the same as yesterday, and last week and last year. And in pops a nondescript Galilean and suddenly God speaks to John and lets him know who he’s baptizing, the Lamb of God – the Son of God.

Now if John found it hard to recognize Jesus when he was in front of his nose, is it any wonder that we find it hard to recognize Jesus? That’s all about how and where we look. Jesus is all around us. We find Him in prayer. We find Him in His Word. We find Him everywhere, if only we seek Him. He is there. We just need to know how and where to look.

How do you see Jesus?

By John Grant
Used by Permission
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney