Walk-Through Visitor?

School teachers dread the walk-through, an annual evaluation that occurs when an administrator walks through the classroom with the intent of assessing teacher performance and instruction. In some schools, a form is filled out, boxes are checked, and an assessment is recorded in a permanent file. Often walk-throughs occur at the least opportune moment – disastrous times when a boy is stuck by his ears in a desk, or a girl who has fallen asleep is drooling on her paper, or a child decides to hide behind the teacher’s podium! Definitely not at times when things are going textbook perfect. Which is the point, I guess. To see how prepared we actually are to handle the unexpected and unplanned!

I can’t plan for a walk-though at my job, but I can prepare for company who comes once a year to visit us in our home. I thoroughly clean my house – inside and outside. I organize drawers and closets, wipe out the cabinets and replace towels. I buy new candles, and I cook like Paula Deen. Well, maybe not. In the garden, I deadhead the roses, pull weeds, and plant rosemary. I want our home and yard to be as clean and fragrant as possible so I prepare as thoroughly as I possibly can and pray all goes well.    

I also carefully plan and prepare and pray for our annual summer Bible study sponsored by Manna of God, a charity in which I’m involved. In reality, I pray more and study more and plan more as I prepare for this extra special event. More than I normally do. I admit it.  

Recently, the writing of Oswald Chambers reminded me that Jesus didn’t call his disciples to get to the other side, but he called them to get in the boat where they had to battle the waves and face their fears. He called them to a place where they were unprepared. A place they didn’t plan on being. And when they were frightened and worried and at their wits' end, that’s when they saw him -- walking on the turbulent water toward them -- not beckoning to them from the other side.   

Luke 12:40 tells us that we “must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when (we) do not expect him.” Jesus will return again, but he’s also present now, and regardless of the unprepared, unexpected, or unplanned situations where we find ourselves, he doesn’t just visit or walk through, but he walks on the waves of our lives, however turbulent and frightening, and beckons us to see him standing in our midst. To see he’s the only preparation we need for all that life might bring.