MEETING PLACE

Can you think back to your first meeting? Maybe it was the first week on a new job, a school project, or perhaps a family meeting. The most successful meetings are where there is a clear vision from the meeting leader and full engagement from the people attending. No one ever wants to be that person called on but doesn’t know what’s going on because they were catching up on social media, daydreaming of what they’re going to eat for lunch, or just taking a good ole selfie.

In the Old Testament, the only place to “meet” with God was in the Holy of Holies. This was a room so sacred that only one person could enter once a year. The priest would enter into the Holy of Holies to meet with God and atone for the sins of the people. Sacrifices were made, and blood was shed to please their God (Leviticus 16).

Everything changed when Jesus entered the scene. When God came to earth in the form of a baby, there was a collision of perfect love and wretched sin. He knew the only way for us to freely meet with Him again like we were created to do from the beginning, was for Him to do the impossible. He had to fulfill the prophecy and become Emmanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14). Jesus was born into our hurt, our pain, and our sin. It was the only way, the connecting piece, and person, to bring us back to God (John 14:6). And soon, this Jesus would die on a cross we deserved, be raised from the dead, and leave the gift of God Emmanuel to live inside of us as the new Holy of Holies (John 14:26).

You see, the vision is clear from the leader of our hearts: God wants us to meet with Him — a glorious one-on-one simply. No agenda, no timeline, no deadline. He wants us to slow down enough and be close enough to watch Him move in our lives and the lives around us. Let’s take some time in this season to meet with our Creator, who loved us enough to come into our mess to meet us right where we are.