Reading Time: 4 minutes

What numbing sorrow must have filled the hearts of the two dejected disciples as they trudged their way along the dusty road to Emmaus.  It was the afternoon of the most pivotal moment in human history, and the astounding stories were already circulating that their beloved and recently slain teacher had risen from the dead. But their hearts were cold, darkened. The stories seemed a cruel joke, and made their loss all the more painful.

A stranger approached from the rear, heading in the same direction. It was their resurrected Lord, but their eyes were restrained, and “they did not know Him.” They had nothing to say to this stranger, nor any interest in what he might have to say to them. They were content to share the road, but nothing more.  

They spoke to one another in hollow voices of the tragic events of the last few days. The stranger listened. 

Finally, he spoke, and asked the two what they were discussing in such sad tones.

“Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have you not know the things which happened there in these days?” Cleopas, one of the two, responded.

“What things?” the stranger asked.

“The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and crucified him.  But we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they didn’t not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.”

The stranger continued to listened.

“And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but him they did not see.”

And now the stranger spoke.

“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”

And then, beginning at the first five books of Moses, and all through the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And as He spoke, their hearts “burned” within them.

The words of Scripture had been there their entire life, but they had not interpreted them correctly. Indeed, this malady seemed to plague most of the people whom Jesus met during His earthly ministry. But now, in the 21st century, with almost two millennia of Christian teaching behind us, we see Christ all over the Scriptures. We see Him in the sacrifices of the old covenant. We see him in the manna that came down from heaven. We see Him in the rock that poured forth water in the desert, and in so many other places.

But closing our Bibles, we think we leave the revelation behind. We trudge through our daily lives, straining to remember what we’ve learned in the pages of Scripture.  Sure, our hearts burned as we read the words of our Savior, but how quickly those words are drowned out by the clamor of the mundane.

The point of this blog will be to draw attention to the declarations our God is making throughout every moment of our lives. He is not silent, nor does He only speak in the pages of Scripture. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” As such there is no place we can go where He is not present, and the very creation He has fashioned bears testimony to Him.

We have been taught that the things all around us are silent, mute objects that “just are.”  But the word of God tells us that “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.” (Ps. 19:1-2 NKJV). It also teaches us that every human alive has access to this revelation, because “what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.” (Rom. 1:19) And it is precisely through “the things that are made” that He communicates this knowledge.

This is a glorious thought, if you stop to consider it. Our loving Creator is continually communicating the knowledge of Himself to His creation.  There is no place in all of creation where one can go and NOT hear His voice. No place where His “invisible attributes are not CLEARLY SEEN.” And this communication beckons us to respond, to enter into discourse with Him.

I am convinced this is true, that God is indeed declaring the knowledge of Himself, pouring forth the truth of His eternal power and Godhead through the things He has created.  My goal is to explore these things with you, to point out the multitude of ways your God is revealing Himself, that your heart, too, might burn within you, and that you might never stop the dialogue with your Lord.

A dear neighbor of mine developed a disease in her college years which gradually deteriorated her ability to hear and left her completely deaf.  She met and married a man and they had two beautiful daughters together. But she had never heard their voices until advances in technology allowed her to receive an implanted device that enabled her to hear again. But even so, she had to relearn how to hear.

She related an incident which happened to her when her girls were young that I have never forgotten. One day she was napping while her daughters played on the floor nearby. While they played they turned on the radio to listen to music. The sound eventually woke her up, but all she heard was a cacophony of sound, meaningless and loud. She said to her daughters, “What is that noise!?”  They said, “It’s the radio.” Immediately the sound became music to her.  Once her mind had the right category for the sounds, it interpreted them correctly.

In just the same way, I believe that as we study the word of God, and understand better who our God has revealed Himself to be in Scripture, we will better interpret the revelation of the things all around us. We will “hear” what He is saying as we walk the road of life through the reality He has created. Every day can become an “Emmaus Moment” when we “see” what was before us all along. May our hearts be warmed as we do.