“Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house, doing my Father’s business?” Luke 2:49
It seemed appropriate to begin in the beginning, not with the first statement Jesus makes in the Gospels, but with his earliest recorded statement.
I’m not going to go through the whole circumstances here, you can read it for yourself, but the questions Jesus asked of his earthly mother and father, stir a question in me:
Where do you find Jesus?
Today, I pulled up Google Navigator on my phone, plugged in an address, and the application led me precisely to my desired destination. Now, the process wasn’t perfect, because at some point, the application froze and I had to restart it, realizing the necessity for a u-turn to get me back headed in the right direction.
I don’t have Jesus GPS, so finding Jesus in daily life is a lot like losing your kid in a busy marketplace and taking what seems like three days to figure out where the little rascal went. Well, maybe it’s not that difficult, but there’s a lot out there that LOOKS like Jesus, but isn’t. Many things are said and done in the name of Jesus that I think are complete misrepresentations of who he is at best, or downright hateful and mean at worst…
So where do you find Jesus?
Look for his Father’s business, being done in earnest passion, and that’s where I think you’ll find Jesus.
So, what’s his Father’s business? Well, it isn’t crusading violence or judgmental rhetoric… remember “loving God and loving people?”
Find where those two things are being authentically lived out, and there you will find Jesus.
What Does Jesus Say to You? 