Just "Google" It

The current “Information Revolution” is both a blessing and a curse. Vast amounts of information (not all of it accurate) are now available to anyone with an internet connection. With the click of a mouse or a tap on your smart phone you can find out almost anything you might want to know (and some things you really don’t want to or should know). It’s hard to get away with false or misleading statements these days. It’s not unknown for church folk to “fact check” their pastor while he’s preaching. In fact, “google” has now become a verb in our language. It’s all about knowing what to search for and how to search for it.

In fact, “searching” or “seeking” has been an important part of the human experience from the beginning. Everyone is searching for something, and most are searching for similar things. There are some basic things, basic human needs, that all are seeking. We all know that in the beginning God created all things, including human beings, to be very good and to reveal the glory and be an expression of the nature of God. The sin-disease threw God’s good plan off center, resulting in universal gaps and needs that can only be filled by a return to God and his good purpose. It was Blaise Pascal who said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man [and woman] which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” Twelve centuries earlier St. Augustine wrote, “Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.” The Westminster Confession asked, “What is the chief end of man?” And the answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”

So we are all searching, longing, hoping, many times “looking for love in all the wrong places.” Sin has left major gaps in our souls and lives, and those gaps can only be filled in one way and by one Person. The ancient Israelites were promised, “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29). King David sang, “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (1 Chronicles 16:11), and advised his son Solomon, “acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you” (1 Chronicles 28:9). During times of dryness, naturally and spiritually, God promised, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). God is looking for “a generation of those who seek him” (Psalm 24:6). That is the only thing that will truly satisfy. “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek” (Psalm 27:8). The honest seeking heart concludes, “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). “Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always” (Psalm 105:3-4). The prophets advised, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6), “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you” (Hosea 10:12), and “Seek the Lord and live” (Amos 5:6). For the Lord had promised them, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

In his sermon at Athens Paul explained it this way: “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:26-27). On that first Christmas magi from the east were searching for a king, Israel was searching for a Deliverer, and the shepherds were just hoping for peace. Little did they know that the fulfillment of all their hopes and dreams, the answer to the search of all humanity, was being born in a manger in Bethlehem. Jesus was, and still is, the only thing that can fill the gaps in our souls and lives. Everything and everyone other than Jesus will satisfy for the short-term but only increase the painful longing in the long term.

During the third week in Advent the church traditionally reflects on the role of Mary in the birth of the Christ, including her response of simple faith and obedience. Mary was a simple peasant girl, the teen-aged daughter of a poor farmer in Galilee. But she had been looking to God, seeking the Lord, for the fulfillment of his good purpose in and through her life. So when Gabriel brought her an unbelievable greeting her simple response was, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” Nothing else really mattered – for Mary and for us here today. May we find the true joy of Christmas as we surrender every part of our hearts and lives to the presence and word of God.