John 1:29-34 NASB95
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! [30] This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ [31] I DID NOT RECOGNIZE HIM,, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” [32] John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. [33] I DID NOT RECOGNIZE HIM,, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ [34] I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” In verse 31 and verse 33, John acknowledges the fact that he did not recognize Jesus. John’s mother and Jesus’s mother were very close, and John was six months older than Jesus, so it seems obvious that these two cousins had spent a lot of time together over the years. In spite of that, John said that he did not recognize Him. Of course, John was talking about the fact that he did not recognize his cousin as being the Messiah, but I think the Holy Spirit wants to say something to us about the fact that just like John didn’t recognize Jesus even though Jesus was standing right in front of him, that we often do not recognize Jesus though He is standing right in front of us. As Christians, I know that we recognize Him as the Messiah for we recognize Him as our Savior, but I’m talking about the fact that Jesus can often be doing things in our lives, but because of the fact that we’re not seeing with Dove’s eyes we don’t recognize Him. There are times when Jesus is doing things different from what we were expecting, and therefore we stumble over Him because we don’t recognize Him. Part of what it means to walk in the Spirit is to have Spirit–filled eyes to recognize Jesus in the midst of everything. That doesn’t at all mean that He is the cause of everything, but it does mean that we see Him in the midst of everything, causing everything to work together for our good. He is a Redeemer, and He redeems from the inside out. He stands in the midst of deep darkness and redeems the darkness from its core outward. That is a great mystery, but is foundational to a life of childlike faith that can extract the precious from the worthless. When you can recognize Jesus in all things (no matter how dark the storm might be, then His presence becomes your environment, and thanksgiving becomes the melody of your heart.