Do you see Jesus? He is with us, though unseen. But how He longs to be desired, recognized, and appreciated! As my heart burns with joy this Sabbath morning in fresh contemplation of the loveliness of Jesus, I am so encouraged to realize that He revealed Himself to the disciples by the pathway of their familiar associations--blessing the food for their evening meal, which then revealed the print of the nails. I contemplate that when we are in heaven, Jesus will ever bear the marks of His humiliation, for His wounds are the hiding of His power. That the Son of God, yes, that the Deity would become humanity for us, giving up His omnipresence, yielding Himself to the most cruel death to save us--what language can rightly portray the value of the message we get to share?! We have a Brother named Jesus for ETERNITY!! How can our hearts not burn within us!
As Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples after anchoring their faith in the word of God, He again vanished. I contemplated this more today. We are in a similar position. We do not see Jesus physically, but we can see Him with the eye of faith, grasping by faith the unseen and eternal reality of His presence through the Holy Spirit, who works in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. The joy and enthusiasm that animates the disciples is so great that all else before them is lost sight of, and their food untasted, they go forth to proclaim a risen Savior! May His love so fill us that we cannot hold our peace, we must find one more soul with whom to share the everlasting gospel of the loveliness of the character of God and all He has done for us, thus leading to a total transformation in our characters whereby obedience is a delight, sacrifice is a pleasure, and the path that before seemed shrouded in darkness becomes bright with beams from the Sun of righteousness! Amazingly, the two disciples actually walked the same road as before, only in a NEW way! We are filled with all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing when Jesus abides in the soul by a living faith! What joy to proclaim the greatest message ever committed to any beings ever at a time in which the world was never more in need of a revelation of His character (and the onlooking universe is waiting to see what the power of God's grace can do in changing sinners into saints, keeping them from falling into sin as they abide in Him at a time when every weapon of hell will be arrayed against them. Rejoice! Let the heart that burns with love for the Savior impel you to go forward in the path He chooses for you today!!!
"The simple evening meal of bread is soon prepared. It is placed before the guest, who has taken His seat at the head of the table. Now He puts forth His hands to bless the food. The disciples start back in astonishment. Their companion spreads forth His hands in exactly the same way as their Master used to do. They look again, and lo, they see in His hands the print of nails. Both exclaim at once, It is the Lord Jesus! He has risen from the dead!" {The Desire of Ages, page 800, paragraph 4}
They rise to cast themselves at His feet and worship Him, but He has vanished out of their sight. They look at the place which had been occupied by One whose body had lately lain in the grave, and say to each other, 'Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?'" {The Desire of Ages, page 801, paragraph 1}