God Has Found Us

A few years ago, a large bull moose wandered into the city of Calgary, Alberta. It ended up in the yard of Lorna Cade who called the Fish and Wildlife Department. Soon spectators and reporters were gathered, watching the authorities unsuccessfully try to coax the magnificent animal back toward the woods. Finally, a Fish and Wildlife officer shot the moose with a tranquilizer. It then bolted down the street and collapsed on the lawn of a neighbor at the end of the block. The reporters followed the animal and then interviewed the woman who was living at that house. She said, “Yes, I was surprised to look out the window and see a moose lying on my lawn. But my husband is going to be even more surprised. He is out moose hunting today.”

Friends, I have heard similar deer hunting stories over the years. Maybe dad spends all day in the woods without seeing a single whitetail, while a huge ten point buck walks up to the kitchen window while mom is the doing dishes. Sometimes the things for which we are looking all over are right there in our front yard.

We live in a time where many people are “hunting for God.” Unfortunately, most folks seem to be looking for God in all the wrong places. Eastern and New Age religions, the occult, assorted therapies and support groups, and various philosophies are the hunting grounds where people seek to encounter the divine and find spiritual fulfillment. Yet, I am convinced these all are essentially spiritual wastelands that leave the seekers empty.

The message of Christianity is that we don’t need to find God, because God has found us. Over 2,000 years ago, God visited this planet in the person of Jesus Christ. His profound teaching, magnificent miracles, and perfect expressions of love demonstrated that Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be—the eternal Son of God who had become human to dwell in our midst. Jesus’ time on earth culminated with His death on the cross. By dying as a substitute for sinful human beings, Jesus enables us to be reconciled to God. His resurrection from the dead is the ultimate confirmation that Jesus’ claims about Himself are true. It also guarantees that those trusting in Him will conquer death as well.

We need to look no further than Jesus Christ to encounter the divine and find all that our hearts truly desire. Our longing to be free from guilt and regret is fulfilled when we realize that because of Jesus’ death in our place, God “remembers our sin no more.” Our yearning for unconditional love is met when we learn that “nothing can separate from the love of Christ.” Our hunger for true meaning and purpose is satisfied when we find that even our most mundane activities can be done in ways that glorify the Lord. Our quest for hope in the face of death is accomplished when we can affirm, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting.”

Friends, those who are off hunting for God in other places are wasting their time. All we need to do is embrace Jesus as Savior and Lord, and we will find what we really need—both for this life and for eternity.