Where God Was Homeless

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 51: Where God Was Homeless

Opening Thought: We are on the second last reading for the Logic of God, and I think this might just be my favorite. As this is a devotional with 52 entries, I assume Zacharias put a few Christmas themed entries towards the end on purpose. He talks about Christmas gathering were his family hosted a lonely person for Christmas. Zacharias always being on the road, relished his Christmases as a time to break from strangers and be with family. Unfortunately for him, due to circumstances outside of his control, Zacharias was put in charge of entertaining their guest for the evening. Zacharias thought to himself that it was going to be the worst Christmas ever.

At the end of the night, after entertaining the man with theological discussion and conversation. The man left, thanking the family, and saying it was “the best Christmas of [his] life.”  Zacharias said, “my heart sank in self-indictment at those tender words.”

We don’t always know when God is using us to be a beacon of light for someone, so it is best to always assume God is using us and do our best to bring honor to the responsibility.

The devotional begins with: Matthew 25:34-35,40

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in… “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Second Thought: If you have ever watched a cop drama on television, and the officers have the suspect in the interrogation room with the one-way mirror, so the detectives can obverse the suspect with out the suspect observing them – sometimes when I read these words from Matthew, I think of the one-way mirror.

God looks upon us through the eyes of those he calls to help, love and save. When we walk away from their pleads for help, we walk away from God. When we let them go hungry, we are starving God, God is on the other side of the mirrors into our souls and is watching to see what we will do.

Now if we were the suspect in the interrogation room, and we heard a cough echo from behind the mirror, I bet most people would try extra hard to behave, make sure they did not slip up while being watched. When you are left alone for a long period of time, many doubt if anyone is watching, then you allow yourself to take more risks to your darker personality.

Here in this passage, Jesus tells us directly that God is there in those moments, God is watching, Jesus is their seeking out the righteousness in all of us. Jesus is behind the mirror and intentionally coughing to let you know he is watching. Yet, even with that knowledge many of us choose to live sinful lives.

Often when I have come across militant atheists, after some getting to know them, their disbelief always seems to extend from a desire for a behaviour which is prohibited biblically, and therefore it is easier for them to believe God is not behind the mirror, and thus their actions, desires, and sin have no real moral truth to hold them accountable.

But Christ tells you God is present in those moment because it is not a trap, it is not a trick to catch you doing something wrong, rather it is an opportunity for you to live to your fullest capacity in Christ’s will, in righteousness.

Continual Work: Think about your life as being on the other side of a one way mirror and God is watching you all the time, in all your interaction.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: Sometimes I like to imagine God is sitting on my shoulder, a play on the old angel on the shoulder gag from popular television. Not only do I know God is watching but talking with God as if He is on my shoulder, helps me stay conscious of how I ought to act in any given situation.  

Prayer for your day: Let us pray for today, tomorrow and the next. God bless the people of this world who need Your love, which is everyone. Let me be a bless for them, by Your will. Amen.

Artistic Close: The mirror seems appropriate to hide the detective, a seeker of truth. But the mirror can also in some cases be a deceiver in metaphor, we often think we can see into the mirror to seek truth about ourselves, but mirrors can only show us the physical not the spirit, me must look beyond our own reflections and seek God.