Our church has started a meet and greet time during the service as many churches do. It is one of those things which make introverts run for the bathroom. Although it is a good practice for the body of the church, it’s a little uncomfortable for people-avoiders in attendance.
Announced last Sunday, it came accompanied with the buzz of voices and shifting positions. I was trapped in the center of the row. I looked longingly toward the doors which were only a few feet away, but unattainable, my exit ramp plugged with too many bodies to squeeze past.
The young lady in front of me turned without hesitation, obviously an extrovert, and with a big smile held out her hand.
“Hi, I’m Melissa,” she said.
She had a taut basketball-belly. Her pregnancy was unnoticeable until she turned to face me, and then it became apparent she neared the end of her wait.
“Hi,” I introduced myself and then asked the obvious question, “When are you due?”
“This Saturday.”
“How exciting!” I said.
“It’s a boy. It’s our first baby and we are so excited! We just can’t wait to meet him.”
Long after she turned back to face the front of the auditorium, the words, “To meet him,” played in my mind.
That pregnant wait.
I could relate with the young woman. I too have waited to meet a tiny life within. I know what she felt, loving someone not yet introduced.
They will meet. Melissa will cradle him in her arms. The velvet flesh of a baby-person will be unveiled, meet-able and unique. She’ll finger his hands and caress tiny toes. They will gaze deep into each other’s eyes and Melissa, his mommy, will never be quite the same.
Life holds one meet and greet after another. Inconsequential ones mix every day in a linked chain of life happenings, part of humanity’s crowded swelling inhale and exhale.
We meet for work, important, necessary and often redundant. Meetings connect family and friends. We meet for relationship, fun, pleasure, and we meet for love. There are big meetings which pivot our lives, and small forgettable ones.
The Apostle Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Peter met Jesus while mending fishing nets. Zacchaeus met Him while perched in a tree. And a woman with a sketchy background and reputation met Him at a well.
Many people met Jesus, but not everyone was transformed by Him.
Judas Iscariot, political rulers, and soldiers at the cross greeted Him face to face, but didn’t really meet Him with believing hearts.
Not all who greet Him actually meet Him.
And it struck me as I sat in that sanctuary on Sunday how easily it is for me, for us, to go about our lives bumping into Jesus but neglect truly meeting Him. Like the crowds who swirled about Him, we can bump into Him occasionally, as though greeting His Sunday morning outstretched hand, without ever truly meeting Him.
We may allow Him to touch the skin of our lives without giving Him deep access to the soul of our hearts.
But those who meet Him with believing faith and humble hearts are never the same after. Which begs the question; have you met Jesus?
1. We meet Him in salvation. He reaches out His hand to us, resurrecting us from death to life. He forgives our sins and transforms our hearts.
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 ESV)
2. We meet with Him daily as we gaze into His Word and meet with Him in prayer. He forms us and molds us to become like Him.
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV)
3. We will meet with Him someday, face to face in all His glory, promised, anticipated, awaited.
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2 NIV)
A pregnant wait.
We are moving toward a glorious meeting. An unveiling, like seeing an anticipated loved one for the very first time. Known, yet still unkown.
I haven’t heard if Melissa has met her baby son yet, but I imagine how dearly Jesus must enjoy the scene of mommy meeting baby and baby meeting mommy with nothing-held-back-adoration.
Here is a precious certainty. Jesus wants to meet us with nothing-held-back-adoration too.
Life is full of meets and greets, but on Sunday in the middle of a congested row, God reminded me of a great colossal greeting ahead, and I can hardly wait “to meet Him.”
Here is an article I recently wrote which you might find interesting.
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