A couple of weeks ago, I was coaching my 13-year-old volleyball team when the Lord revealed something to me through one of my players. One of the players shanked a ball high up into the air, and this player freaked out, started spinning in circles while looking at the ground, and then began yelling, “I can’t find it, I can’t find it.” Now, the coach on the other side of the net, and most of her players, thought this was hilarious! Meanwhile, as her coach, I was frustrated with her yelling, “LOOK UP! LOOK UP!” …
Then, I realized God was reminding me to stop spinning in circles looking everywhere for answers in my life, when, if I just changed my perspective and looked up, I could find the one person who has all the answers. Lately, in this season of COVID and uncertainty, I realized I had taken my eyes off the Father. The other coach said, “ninety-nine percent of the time if you look up, you can find the ball.” But, with the Lord, we will find Him one hundred percent of the time if we just look for Him. In Proverbs, we find a sweet word from the Lord that says,
“I love those who love me and those who seek me, find me.” Proverbs 8:17
During this season, I am specifically reminded of people who “looked up” to follow a star and, because of their obedience, found the greatest gift ever, our Savior lying in a manger. The wise men decided to focus on and follow the star that they found by listening to the Lord, looking up, and following the guide that the Lord gave them. Matthew 2:9 states,
“After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.”
The most beautiful part of this verse is that the star “went ahead of them” on their journey to find the Savior. In a similar way, on our journey in life, the Lord has gone ahead of us. He knows every turn, bump, and fork in the road. Yet, His light provided to us through scripture, and the Holy Spirit guides us to the Father; we only need to look to Him. That means that the Lord knows what is coming next. Life may seem hectic and crazy, and you might be a little lost right now, but He is never lost. The Lord knows what is around the corner for us and what is around the corner after that. And, if we truly seek Him with a humble heart, we are told in Psalm 32:8 that,
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”
The Lord will show us the way to go. His way may not be what we want, but the Lord will counsel us with His loving eye and show us the way He wants us to go. And His way takes us places that we never would’ve thought possible. Like the wise men, who were led to a barn where they found their Savior wrapped in cloth lying in a manger.
If my volleyball player would have stopped aimlessly searching on the ground and looked to the sky, she had a very good chance of saving that play, but instead, she freaked out and looked in the opposite direction. How often do we, as humans, know where to find the Lord and know that if we seek Him, we will find Him, still look in the opposite direction when something goes awry, and we don’t have all the answers. So, in 2021, let’s start choosing to focus on the One who is all-knowing, the One who always wants us, the One who has already won every battle, the One who loves us most.
Kristie Brothers
Lean into Jesus Ministries
#kristiebrothersblogs