Come and See

One of my favorite memories as a kid was my cousin Josh. The dude was super cool and had everything I didn’t. He was super smart, great at sports, good at video games, and a cool dude. My mom was cool enough to let me go spend a week with Josh. There was something about his world that I loved. Hanging out near the city of Chicago was super awesome. We saw all kinds of cool stuff that was unique. Those experiences and memories have always dominated my thoughts. I told Mindy I have more photo albums in my head than my family had to look at growing up. Do you remember the books with the sticky pages that made sure the photos never moved? Well, if you dove into my brain you would find a million of those albums holding dearly to all the memories that have shaped me.

I went to tennis camp with Josh one year. Some of the kids from camp asked me where I lived. When I told them Blue Springs they started making fun of me. They asked me if we had cows there. They had all kinds of farm jokes. I remember being frozen in that moment wanting to show them that Blue Springs is cool. I didn’t know what to say. I wish I would have had Phillip’s words to say, “Come and See!” (John 1:46)  Ok, so I probably would have said, “Hey, jokers come and see!” Regardless, Phillip wasn’t putting up with Nathanael’s trash. He was telling Nathanael to come and see what comes from Nazareth. History shows us that Nathanael really didn’t have anything to prove that Nazareth was a bad city. The reality was that most people didn’t even know about it.

One of the best things Josh’s parents (my aunt and uncle) ever did for me was to take me see Michael Jordan play. My aunt told me these tickets were impossible to get. I never understood until I was older the blessing of that experience filed away in my memory. I got to see them in the season that Michael helped the Bulls to win 72 games. All the Jordan cards I had at home became a reality on the court that day.  Seeing Michael Jordan play was one of those amazing experiences that most people only dream about.

Recently I read an article on Jordan that asked the question, “Do we really want to be like Mike?”  The article showed that Jordan is now one who looks for any moment of competition he can find, and is saddened to not have that same level of competition he once had. Competition is the drive of his heart, and now that it is over, what is left? Maybe you don’t know, but he is trying to create a team to be and do what he did. The problem is, the team is missing the competitor that he was. Thus, Jordan is left in sadness and wondering what is next. Hardly a man we want to be like.

The greatest part of this weekend’s lesson is that the disappointment that Jordan feels is not what Nathanael found when he “came to see” Jesus. Instead, he saw someone who, in an instant, changed his opinion of a city that he had put down. He saw not just something good that came from Nazareth, but something awesome! Nathanael saw who Jesus really was and it changed him.

These days Josh and I aren’t much different.  He has moved from doing technical work in a large world bank to a smaller company. He feels like he can accomplish more without all the red tape of a big company. He has four kids and a great wife.  All those things that we worried about as kids are long gone. Now we are both trying to lead our families with the gifts God has given us, having been blessed to know Jesus for years. And it’s all because a long time ago our parents asked us to “come and see Jesus.” This weekend we’ll talk about how our doubt can so quickly be changed as we see the hand of Jesus in our lives.