“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them and they with me.” [Revelation 3:20]
What if this whole journey starts with a knock on your door? Seriously! Can you imagine opening the door and finding Jesus on your doorstep with a pint of Rocky Road? Have you ever had a friend like that? Someone who shows up unannounced and just says, “Hey! I miss you and I remembered that you love Rocky Road. Let’s catch up.” Can you picture Jesus that way? It’s a wild thought, isn’t it, that the God of all Creation, the Lord of the Angel Armies values you so highly that He’ll come looking for you? But that’s exactly what the Bible tells us. The very name given to Jesus, Immanuel, means “God with us.” The Bible is full of stories that tell us over and over that God wants to be with us. The very life of Jesus is the most powerful sign of God’s desire to be with us—when God chose to be born a human, He did it so He could be with us, in all of our mess and brokenness, so He could walk with us and share a meal with us.
God’s pursuit of us starts at the very beginning of the story.
“Then the Man and his wife heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called out to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9
This might be one of the most heartbreaking passages in the Bible. When it all started, humans were with God in such beautiful nearness that they met with Him daily. The garden they lived in was the very dwelling place of God, and they were always with him. Their whole world shattered when they chose to break the only command He had given them. And what we see next is that they hid from Him. The first thing God does is to go looking for them. Don’t be mistaken, He’s God, He knew right where they were. He knew exactly what they had done. But they needed to know that God still wanted them, that He would search for them, even after they destroyed the goodness of the world He had made for them, the world they shared together. They needed to hear Him say, “where are you?”
This beautiful reality is still true today. The voice of God calling out, “where are you?” echos through the pages of he Bible and through the centuries of human history. The God of all Creation knows exactly where you are and everything you’ve done, and still, He comes looking for you. Chances are good, you won’t actually hear a knock on your door or hear Him call out in an audible voice, “where are you?” But you might hear His voice through a friend or a sunset. You may hear Him calling to you through a song or a circumstance. We can hear Him calling out to us clearly through the pages of the Bible. The story is the same as it’s been from the beginning. In God’s immense love for us, He tells us that nothing can separate us from Him: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:38-39). His love is chasing after you.
Scripture Reference:
““What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.”
Matthew 18:12-14 NIV
Discussion Questions:
- Jesus is knocking at the door of your life. What’s your response? Do you hide and pretend you’re not home? Do you ask Him to come back later because your house is a mess? Or do you run to the door and throw it open because you’re so excited to see Him? Which one of these responses is most true about your life right now and why?
- Can you imagine what the conversation would be like if you were to actually open the door and let Him in? Take a minute to think about it and write down what you think He would tell you. What questions would you have for Him?
- When was the last time you found yourself hiding from God? Maybe you’re hiding now. Or maybe you’re just trying to hide parts of yourself from Him. What would it take for you to step out of hiding and into His arms.
Assignment:
Can you think of a time where you were the one that Jesus left the ninety nine for and pursued you. Take a moment to write that moment down in your journal and share it with your group. Maybe the moment is right now, praise God! Discuss it with your group.