The Savior comes our way (John 1:36) and because of a missed placed comma we can miss him with an observation by Tennyson.

SCRIPTURE: John 1:36 (TM)

He (John the Baptist) looked up, saw Jesus walking nearby, and said, "Here he is, God's Passover Lamb."

STORY:

“There is only one piece of news I know,” said a woman to Tennyson when the poet on a journey had arrived at her house and inquired if anything of note was happening. “There is only one piece of news I know: Christ died for all men.” “Well,” said Tennyson, “that is old news, and good news, and new news.”

OBSERVATION:

Too often we get lost on our way to the truth of Christ. We get bogged down with the “stuff” of church and fail to see the light of our faith. For example, and it happens to every pastor in every congregation, there will always be at least one individual who will find something to enlighten the preacher about – something that he or she missed during Sunday’s service – something that could make the worship experience better – something that we would never have thought of without their insight … and, here is the clincher, it is often the minor trappings of worship. A banner is hung a little crooked, the flowers were not turned right on the altar, the bulletin had a word spelled wrong or a comma should not have been in a particular sentence … and so the list goes on.

All the while everything was pointing to the Pascal Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. Christ is being lifted up and praised, only to be missed because their attention had been diverted to minor things. It is the “pussycat syndrome: “Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?
I've been to London to visit the Queen.
Pussycat, pussycat, what did you there?
I frightened a little mouse under her chair.”

The “pussycat” missed out on the big picture by concentrating on the small things. John the Baptist didn’t want his disciples to miss out on seeing, meeting, accepting Jesus. It is easy to zero in on the “little mice” of our daily living and miss the “queen” or the King of Kings upon his throne or the Savior upon his cross. For the sake of a missed placed comma or the angle of a banner the Savior passed our way and was missed.

“Behold” we shoot, God’s Passover Lamb passes our way only to be missed because of a dust-ball under a chair or a cobweb in the corner.  

PRAYER:

Help us to lift our eyes beyond the mundane so that we can see our Savior as he passes our way.