Divine delay

These two men on the road to Emmaus had planned a journey, with a destination. The journey changed, and they didn’t quite reach their planned destination but they encountered Jesus and their lives and all future journeys were changed.
We are all on a journey, and some journeys are longer than others, and some seem to be on hold. God is with us on each journey and the journey is always speaking to us. So on these journeys we must continually stop and draw near to God, ask him to stay a little longer, and have our eyes opened that we may get to know Jesus more, in the midst of all the delays and joys and sufferings on the way.

The message of the gospel is about finding Jesus and finding ourselves on the journey of our life. Jesus is always there, like he was with the two men, but he is hidden from our eyes. He is hidden not only within own lives and circumstances, but also hidden within the lives of people we meet on the journey, and sometime seen behind their eyes of pain or confusion – their need, or behind eyes of blessing, their care.
Matt 25:37…But when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger and took you in…?

We often only know the journey and its meaning afterwards, when we sit with him like the two men did, and ask him to stay a little longer, and he opens our eyes to where he was on that particular journey and what he has been doing. That is how we can recollect in times of closeness with him each day. That is also what we can ask him to teach us each day, to make us aware of his unseen and hidden presence.
Sometimes the ‘eye openers’ are more manifest and present, and at other times more buried, and need time to be decoded (Peter’s denial and restoration).