Walking under the fig tree

Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” 

And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”  John 1:38-39

The is the same question that Jesus later asked the band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, who went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.  The question He asks each of us, every day.

What do you seek?

What is the aching that longs to be filled?  The hole in my heart?

Andrew and John were unable to put it into words.  But they knew, in their inarticulate bumbling what they needed to do.  Stay.  

Stop seeking elsewhere.  

No person or lover will suffice. Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people.  Certainly I myself am included in the all people.  I let myself down all the time as well.

No stuff. Remember moths and rust?  

Circumstances will always be as unstable as that ladder that the maintenance man wobbled on yesterday as he tried to change the florescent tube.  Down he went, like a tree in the forest.  

Stay.

He alone knows me.  He sees me, just as he saw the heart of Nathaniel standing under the fig tree.  And He has given me a new name: Beloved.

And just as He looked Phillip in the eye, He looks at me and says, “Follow Me.”