Revelation 1:17

“When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead.”

In times of perplexity and extremity I tend to look around to see whom or what I can blame for allowing this difficulty to happen.  I tend, first, to blame myself. I surmise, “If I had made the decision to do this or that it would be different,” or so I think. Perhaps I should have given in a bit like many other people do.  That might have helped.  But I could not do that.

After looking at myself I then turn my eye on others.  Why are they doing so well? They do not suffer like I do.  At that point it is easy to judge people so if I am not careful I proceed to do so, with a certain degree of sweet-feeling superiority.

I might even turn my eye to the past to find my parents to blame or my siblings or old friends. It seems as though they should carry some of the blame for the problems and disappointments that I have experienced in my life.

After I exhaust that lot, I finally turn to God with some very difficult questions like, “Why did you let this happen to me?  I thought you were going to look after me.  Why did you leave me?  I think you are to blame, mostly, not me.”

We human beings find it difficult to live with unanswered questions.  Not only that but when I seem to get a bit of light I conjure up new unanswerable questions.  So I hide behind the hard ever-new questions. But that does not satisfy, no, not much at all.

John may have blamed Caesar for his problem, or he may have begun to doubt whether God cared at all for him and the seven flocks of believers in central Turkey. At least I would have done so.

We do not know what was going on inside John. One thing we do know is that John saw Jesus!  He knew that it was Jesus Christ. John had reasons to be perplexed and discouraged, reasons that laid heavily on his spirit. But when John saw Jesus all those questioned raced to the periphery of his vision. In the very center of his vision he saw Jesus.He was not a “someone,” but Jesus himself.  Praise God. Jesus is God’s answer.  The questions faded, Jesus, the person filled John’s entire vision.  John fell at Jesus’ feet without one question remaining.  When he saw Jesus all questions died.

May it be so with us today.