Daily Reflections on Col. 2:9-12 (Presence)

In the year 2000, I got to visit Israel. It's a trip that really affected my life and moved me. Everywhere our group went was full of history. My imagination began to run wild. I pictured scene after scene of Bible stories playing out before me. I'll never forget watching two fisherman early one Sunday morning rinsing and checking their throw nets from a small boat just off shore on the Sea of Galilee. Immediately I could see Peter and Andrew finishing up from an empty night of fishing. The crowds were gathering along the shore to view the fishermen's catch.

As I walked the paths Jesus walked, visited the villages Jesus visited, prayed in the garden where Jesus prayed, I, and the others with me, were seized with the presence of Jesus. When we gathered in the upper room, it was as if Jesus was passing the broken bread and cup to me. It was as if I could have reached out and touched Him. My envy for those who experienced the physical presence of Jesus overwhelmed me. How great it would have been to have touched, been touched or felt the embrace of Jesus. God in the the flesh. Wow. That would have been awesome.

But just as amazing are the words of the Apostle Paul in these verses. Jesus was the fullness of God in bodily form. He also says that we who have entered into a faith relationship with God through Jesus, have the same fullness of Christ in us. The image Paul paints is of a spiritual operation and/or transformation that empties, removes a darkness or a cancer within our heart and being and replaces it with all the fullness of Christ. As we are lowered into the grave of baptismal waters, God buries our old self there. We're dead; to sin that is. As we are raised from our watery tomb, the freshness of God fills us. In our first breath we draw in the spirit of God. We're alive, this time in Him. New life. New power. New start. I'm not just living in Christ. Christ is now in me.

God, sometimes I forget that I'm not just in your family, but you actually live in me in all your fullness. I have a habit of mentally coming to visit your family, share in Sunday dinner and then go my own way. Sometimes I totally ignore that you're in me, your presence, your being is in me. Lord, I know that I'm spiritually schizophrenic. The reality is that you're with me wherever I am because you're not just next to me, you're inside me. Awaken my spirit to acknowledge that I'm alive in you and you're alive in me.