Come closer

Drawing from Kees de Kort

There is a children’s song about Zacheus – a very small man. He wanted to see Jesus, so he climbed in a tree. But Jesus wasn’t content with Zacheus just seeing him. Jesus stopped and invited himself to dinner with Zacheus – at Zacheus’ home. (You can find this wonderful story in Luke 19).

Another time (look at Luke 8), a sick woman hoped simply to touch the edge of Jesus garment. But Jesus was not content to leave it at that. He took the time to stop and let her know that she was healed of much more than just her bleeding.

This reminds me of what has been happening recently in our life. We have been meeting with a group of teens who are very interested in what the Bible has to say for their lives. They have been to camp and some youth weekends, but now we have been taking the time to meet Jesus in the gospels. We meet every other week, if that works out. Sometimes it is a month between studies. Their father is not a believer.

At the beginning of every study we spend time talking to one another about what is happening in our lives. We also spend a little time talking with the father, who then leaves while we read and discuss what we learn about Jesus.

One evening, he stayed a little longer, fixing something in the corner of the living room. Another time he came walking through several times during our conversations.

Recently, after we had had a longer break between studies because of all the holidays, we were just catching up with everyone and he stayed seated, taking part in the discussion. During the discussion about our lives, he brought up his own struggle with faith and we talked about why one would believe, what we can prove and why we would believe what we do. It was an enervating discussion.

The next time we got together to ‘meet Jesus’ the father, with a bit of a harrumph, decided that he might as well sit in (he played it off as if his wife ‘made’ him do it). As with all of our meetings around scripture, we were all able to discuss what we saw in the text, what we learn about Jesus and what that might mean for our lives. We leave the struggle up to each person individually. He took part with verve.

This father has slowly but surely come closer and closer to Jesus. That is simply what happens when Jesus is around. Jesus is not content to just have you watch from afar – he wants to get to know you as well. It is exciting to see what He can do with His word and as He is living in us. We continue to pray for this father – and the teens – that we will not only meet Jesus, but will also give our lives in following Him.