Search And Rescue

In one of my classes I was required to look at various verses of the Bible which command us to search for God and then create a definition for the word “seek.”  It was an interesting project, but it was also very relevant to my life.  It was interesting because I was amazed at what I learned, and it was relevant because some of the people I love the most are considered “seekers.”  These are people that I pray for on a regular basis, because they don't know whether or not they believe in God, let alone if Jesus is God.  It's also relevant because I go to a “seeker-friendly” church whose mission is to provide a comfortable setting for non-believers and new believers to hear about God.

Anyway, as I started looking at some of the verses in the bible that uses the word “seek,” I ran into two that caught my attention.

The first is found in Matthew 6:33 which says:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

And the second verse is in Luke 19:10 which says:

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

I quickly realized that the word used to describe our search for God, is the same word that Jesus used to describe His search for us. Therefore, if we want to know what it means to seek God, we should consider how He sought us. But before I talk about how God literally sought after (and still seeks after) us, I want to take a moment to put this into a human perspective:

You may not realize this, but God calls Himself a parent, and therefore, we can think about the relationships we have with our parents when we think about the relationship we have with Him. Sometimes this is helpful, and other times it's not. Some people have great parents, while others don't. I'm not talking about your parents grounding you for smoking cigarettes, I'm talking about them beating you, sexually abusing you, or getting a divorce and making you choose between them. That's not what God intended and it's sad that kids have to experience that.  But I digress...

So, imagine yourself in a fairly normal and loving family. Your mom and dad love you and your brother, and every night you sit around the table to eat dinner as a family to talk about the day. Now imagine one night your little brother doesn't come home for dinner. Your parents wait for awhile and then try calling his cellphone.

No response.

A few more hours pass, and your parents call your brother's friends, teachers, and coaches to see if they saw him.

No one has...your brother is missing.

I want you to stop and think about what you would expect a parent to do in that situation. What would you do in that situation? If someone that you loved was lost, how hard would you look for them?

Most people would be frantic. They would call the cops, hang up fliers, drive around the city in their car. Go to every skate park, movie theater, train station, or mall in the 50 mile area. Most parents would split up and start recruiting friends and family to join the search. They wouldn't sleep that night, or at least not until they passed out from exhaustion at 4 in the morning. They would call in sick to work for the week, and probably offer up every prayer they know (whether or not they even believe in God!)

Now think about God as a parent, and humans as His lost children. With that being the case, and Jesus claiming that He came to seek and save the lost; what did that look like?

It's hard to imagine, but before God came to earth, He lived in the “heavens” as the ruler and creator of everything. He had all the power and authority in the universe, but He chose to give it all up and come to earth as a baby. (Imagine transitioning from President to garbage man overnight, and you would still be only scratching the surface.)

Not only did God give up everything to be on earth, but He also lived here for 33 years before He was beaten and nailed to a cross. (If you don't know what a crucifixion looks like, you should rent the The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. It's gross, bloody and painful to watch.)

So why would Jesus do that? Because He came to seek and save the lost.

Humans rebelled against God and were separated from Him. In other words: we were lost. There was only one way to restore the relationship between God and mankind: punish the rebellion. Unfortunately, we were the rebellious ones, and therefore we are the ones that need to be punished! God knew we couldn't handle the punishment, though, so He had to find another way...and this is where Jesus comes in: He took our punishment.

So let's tie this all together: Jesus came to earth to seek and save the lost. What does that mean? It means that He left His status, power, position, security, and home to come to earth and die for people that rebelled against Him. He didn't have to; He chose to.

That's what it means for God to seek us!  You are passionately sought after.

And now, back to the original question:

If that's what it meant for God to seek us, what does it look like for us to seek Him? I'm going to write about that next time, but until then, consider how hard God has been searching for you.