I hate Waldo. It is rather a blunt sentiment to start a devotion with, but I have never truly enjoyed the Where’s Waldo books. The main reason for this loathing for the red and white striped man is it never seems like my eyes move fast enough to spot him. I know who I am looking for, I know all the tricks to the book by faking you out with the random candy cane thrown in there, and that there are only two pages to scan through, and yet my eyes fail me. The same happens to the two men who were on the road to Emmaus.
I find humor in random places in the Bible and this event makes me chuckle any time I get to read it. Two men, walking down the road, and the resurrected Savior of the world just starts strolling with them. The cherry on top has always been the amazing truth that is on display by the once crucified Jesus who is now walking around. Hard to claim a man undergoing torment three days prior was up strolling around without any sort of miraculous feat happening, but I digress. These two men are chatting about the man who they cannot seem to recognize. Jesus seems to be enjoying the scuttlebutt that is circulating Jerusalem and probes the men for more details.
While the men are causally chatting to Jesus, about Jesus because they do not recognize Him as Jesus, our Lord rebukes the men saying, “And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27). Just in case you missed it, Jesus explains every piece of Scripture that pertained to Him!
Eventually, the men’s eyes seem to properly work and they recognized who this random traveler truly was. Luke 24:32 says, “They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’” Sadly for them, their eyes were just not fast enough to recognize Jesus. Jesus even rebukes them by saying they were “slow of heart.”
An amazing truth can be taken away from this moment. There are times in our walk with Christ, that our eyes are too slow to catch Jesus standing right next to us. While we can blame our optical capabilities, the truth is our eyes are slow because our heart is slow. Our hearts are slow to see God move because we are not truly tuned in to seeing Him. Do not miss Jesus like we miss Waldo. Keep your heart and eyes open.