““You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.” Isaiah 43:10-11 ESV
Reflection: what makes a witness credible and believable?
Last year my son and I were traveling to Philadelphia, where my son had an important meeting, a presentation before a committee. And soon after arriving, my son discovered that he had forgotten his suit jacket as he had much on his mind before we left. Our arrival was Saturday, and the presentation the following Monday morning. After a brief discussion, we agreed to go out to try to find and purchase a suit jacket. For those of you who have ever purchased a suit, you know the challenge we were facing. We would have to find a jacket that fit perfectly, not needing alterations, and that would look great together with the pants my son had brought. Thankfully we were staying in the downtown area, with a small shopping mall nearby.
After asking around, we were told there was a store specializing in suits upstairs. We found our way there, and although being a Saturday afternoon, there was no one in the store but a single sales person, and us. She asked if she could help, and directed us to a few specific suits since they didn’t have just jackets that would work for us. She takes out one suit, a wonderful, high end wool suit, asks my son to try it on. And it fits perfectly; I mean perfectly, both jacket and pants. It is pretty surreal to me, because the chance of that is almost impossible if you have ever tried. Only one problem remains. The suit jacket won’t look great with the pants my son had brought, and the pants belonging to the suit needed to be hemmed, as all suits do. It is weekend, late in the day on a Saturday, so I’m thinking that my son will just have to make do with the pants he brought. As that is going through my mind, the woman at the store says
“I will hem them myself. Give me an hour”
What? In all my years of shopping for clothes, and specifically suits, that has never happened before. Interestingly, we are still the only customers in the store. So, we say okay, and leave the store. When we come back 45 minutes later, the suit is done and perfectly hemmed. On top of it all, the store was having a big sale, so the price was also very reasonable. It took me some time to really process what happened at that store, because it is so impossible when you add it all up. So we knew that we had been witnessing directly the hand of God at work. It was so marvelous to see so directly and so obviously; we give Him all the credit, the glory and praise. But it leads me to wonder, do we often miss His work in our lives, perhaps calling it “good luck”, a “random event” or something similar?
We read in our focus verses today, where the Lord God says ““You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.” Isaiah 43:10-11 ESV. He is asking us to be witnesses for Him, together with “and my servant whom I have chosen”, which of course is Jesus. Notice here the specific role we are to take, as witnesses. Not a preacher, not a teacher, not even an expert of biblical truths. He was simply asking us
Just to be witnesses.
Now, we know that we can only be a witness if we have experienced something, right? This experience no one can take from us because we know what we saw, heard or experienced. We know what we witnessed in that store last year. And a personal experience becomes very powerful as we talk with others. That God is not far away, but He is present in our lives. When John the Baptist was wondering if Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus said to tell him “Go and John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and lame walk, lepers are cleansed and deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” Matthew 11:4b-5 ESV. He asked them to witness about what they had experienced.
I am sure you have experienced situations where you wonder, how did that happen? Or why did you run into this or that person? Yesterday, suddenly a former colleague I had not seen for months popped into my mind. I didn’t know why. But a bit later that same day, as my wife and I park at Costco, who else but this colleague and his wife pull up next to us? We ended up having a great little chat.
Are we actively looking for God’s presence in our lives, so that we can use that to witness about Him?
Let’s pray to Him to give us open eyes, ears and minds to see His marvelous works all around us. So that we can use that to witness to those we meet that the Lord is present and active, and to share the hope of salvation only found in and through the Lord, “I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.” Isaiah 43:11 ESV
