From the Edges Seek and Find

Morning Devotion – From the Edges
SEEK and FIND
Jeremiah 29:13 & 14
13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

I have this interest in my ancestry of those my ancestors who came before me. I have been able to search back some 5-8 generations on both sides of my family. When Gail and I were first married on one of our Sunday afternoon excursions, riding around the country side of Fayette, Somerset, and Westmoreland counties in Western PA we were in an area where I knew that my maternal grandmother’s family had originated from when they had migrated here many generations before from Europe.
I remembered as a child hearing the story of the Imel cemetery on the Fayette – Somerset County border. It so happened that our journey that day took us past this mountain cemetery. We decided to walk through the cemetery and found generations of the Nicola/Nicolay family interred there. I shared with Gail some of the stories that I had heard my Mom, Aunts, Uncles and other distantly related people tell when they were together. I knew we were in the area and community once named for that part of the family and could only imagine what the area must have looked like in the 1800’s.
Gail and I drove into the little community of Mill Run and I stopped at a store and went and asked if anyone knew where the community of Nicolay was. This friendly older man jumped up and said, “I sure do, follow me”. With out hesitation he led us in his four-wheel drive and us in our low bottomed Bonneville up the graveled dirt mountain road what seemed like 100 miles. Once we got to a place where it looked as if there was an old road, he pointed us in the direction of the community named for the family, where at one time there was a store, school, and who knows what else. I am not sure we were in the right place, but we imagined we were, and that pursuit was satisfied. At least for the time being!

The reminder of what we look for from Jeremiah 29:13 re-enforces that we will find what we are looking for if we search for it with all of our heart. At that point I was searching for something with all my heart and had put my trust in a stranger who said he knew the way. Who are you or have you put your trust in.

Are you getting the jist of this story. I was lucky that no harm came, the man could have been an ax murderer and was leading us off into the woods to kill us. Not saying that was a thought that came across Gail’s mind, but instead this humble man showed kindness to help me satisfy a need and a desire.
Jesus does this for us all the time. We are promised in these two verses that if we are willing to seek the Lord with all our heart, that God will find us. But if God is already there why does God have to find us. Because I believe we have got so lost in the things of the world, in sinfulness, and distance from God that for some it will be a tough journey to or back to where we belong. But to wherever we have ended up, God will still welcome us back, back to the place we belong. Within the presence of God.
This becomes my longing and I hope that whatever you are going through that it becomes your longing as well. This will truly be the only thing that will satisfy the soul and make us whole.
Prayer – Bring me back to where I belong – by the power and in the name of Jesus – Amen