A couple of weeks ago at my house, a very normal incident occured; my youngest daughter was singing and dancing in the living room. I noticed, among the frivolity, that upon my daughter’s wrist was a shiny bracelet. I thought it looked like the one that my wife just received for her birthday from a friend who lives in another state. When I questioned the little dancing princess about this, she assured me that this was not the case and went on her merry way. Being the doting father that I am, I was content to take this as truth and carry on my way.
Fast forward to later that evening; my wife asks the house where her new bracelet has gone. Being the sleuthful detective I am, I quickly interrogated my little daughter. With wide brown eyes, she told me that she didn’t realize it was mom’s bracelet and so she hadn’t really lied. I let out a less than convincing, “Uh huh” and strongly prompted her to find it lest she incur the wrath of mommy.
After some time had gone by without the retreived artifact, my bride’s ire grew and so did my impetus for mediation. Our precious little daughter hollared down the stairs that the bracelet was nowhere to be found. We responded in kind with the command to search better. She parried us with a guarantee that she had searched everywhere and it could not be found. Thus I found myself walking up the stairs and in a battle of wits with my seven year old.
Father: “It is certainly somewhere and you need to find it.”
Ivy: “Why are you blaming me for this?”
Father: “Because I saw you with it on your wrist dancing like a fairy princess.”
Ivy: “Just because I had it doesn’t mean I lost it. You don’t know that”
Exasperated Man: “That is true, however, I have a very strong probable cause that you were the one to lose it.”
Irritated Princess: “That’s not fair. I didn’t-”
At some point in the exchange, my daughter began to flail her arms around while she was on her bed. Her hands brushed up against stomething “unbed-like” and she immediately stopped her discourse.
Sweet Princess: “Oh. Here it is.”
It was then that the house rejoiced for the lost bracelet was found and the parents were vindicated.
I tell this story (other than the desire for greater vindication) but more so to illustrate a point. How sincerely do we search for God?
God said, through the prophet Jeremiah, “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me (Jeremiah 29:13 NLT).”
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul said
They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God (Romans 1:19-20 NLT).
I have heard it said that a sinner can’t find God for the same reason a thief can’t find a police officer. While I believe that many people are truly deceived and suppress the truth about God, it seems evident to me that the truth about God is not far from us. The Apostle Paul continues in the first chapter of Romans to say that there are no excuses.
My heart is saddened for those who don’t know Jesus. I don’t bring up these things to dismiss my responsibility to share the Gospel with the lost, rather to magnify the goodness of God. We get the priviledge of being ambassadors of God (2 Corinthians 5:20)! We get to display the transforming power of the Gospel in our lives. We get to persuade others who are, perhaps flailing their arms and strongly objecting to what is hidden in plain sight before them.
But we cannot convince a person against their will. We cannot force a person to search for God sincerely. So that means that there will be those, who dispite our best efforts, will reject the message of the gospel. Count on it. Don’t let it discourage you from sharing with others. Even when you feel the scorn and the looks of dismisal. Keep hold of the truth of the gospel. And remember, that if and when a person stumbles upon the precious truth, they will have found a treasure like no other.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field (Matthew 13:44 NLT).