Easter Reflections: Recognizing Jesus in Our Daily Walk

From the Road to Emmaus to Our Everyday Lives: A Call to Open Our Hearts.

We hope you all had a special Easter weekend with your family and friends. As Christians, Easter is the most important day of the year. Jesus' resurrection offered us the promise of hope and life with Him for eternity! It's pretty amazing what He did for us.

Do you ever fail to recognize something right in front of your eyes? Leading up to Easter, in our devotions this past week, we read about the two disciples on the "Road to Emmaus."

“Now, on that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all the things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing them.”  Luke 24:13-16

After reading these verses, we asked ourselves, how many times in our lives do we fail to recognize Jesus walking right beside us? Even when He says to us, "Hey, here I am. It is me, Jesus!" We get too busy or distracted by the busyness of life and the challenges it presents, and we fail to recognize how Jesus is working in our lives. He is with us in all situations. He is walking right beside us, and we fail to recognize who he is.

Like the two on the road to Emmaus, he met them where they were. He meets us where we are. We do not have to go to Him; He comes to us. All we must do is recognize Him and let Him into all aspects of our lives. We must open our eyes, ears, and hearts to HIS presence. In Luke, we read about the two inviting Jesus to their house. 

“But they urged him strongly. “Stay with us” Luke 24:29

They invited him; he did not invite himself. Jesus wants us to invite him into our lives. He is not going to push his way in or invite himself. How often do we wait for Jesus to come into our lives and fail to invite him? We expect him to show up when we need him.

“They asked each other, “Were our hearts not burning within us” while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures” Luke 24:32

Even when they did not recognize him, their hearts "burned." How much do our hearts really "burn" for Jesus?   He is there for us. He asks that we recognize and build a relationship with him through the Word, prayer, and connections with other Christians. 

The Road to Emmaus is a great story for Easter. Our challenge to ourselves and to you coming off Easter is that we will open our eyes and ears more intently to recognize the presence of Jesus in our lives and that, by so doing, each of our hearts will "burn" a bit more as we continue our faith journey together.

For all of you on Spring Break, have a great time with your family! Oh yes, wherever you are this week, be sure to recognize Jesus is on Spring Break with YOU. 😊