The Search

Exodus 28: 30

“Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron’s heart whenever he enters the presence of the Lord. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord.”

Remember the Magic 8-Ball that you had growing up in the 60’s?  If you wanted to know if he or she loved you, or if your team would win the game, you shook it up and an answer would appear in the magic window.  Sometimes it would say “yes”, sometimes it would say “no” and often it would say “maybe” or “answer unknown”.  Many times you shook the 8-ball until the answer you wanted appeared in the window.

Scholars are not sure what the Urim and Thummim were, but they are pretty sure that they were used to answer whether a person was guilty or innocent, and to answer yes or no questions.  The answers yielded by the Urim and Thummim were thought to be from God.

God is not a Magic 8-Ball.   His answers are rarely yes or no.  People on the spiritual path know that there are hardly any simple answers to spiritual questions.  God wants us to work and dig and scratch our heads, and study sometimes for years before we understand even part of the answer.

Our spiritual journey as Christians does not end when we find Christ.  Our journey, our search, to know Christ and to know God actually begins with finding Christ, and is not over until the day we die.

And, at the end of the journey, when we meet God, we will know that it was not so much the answers to our questions, but it was the search that was important.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)