Finding Jesus in a Coffee Cup

For the past three weeks, he has come to the HUB! with backpack full of questions. (For those who don't know, the HUB! is a Friday night youth drop-in center we run in the basement of the church.) Jeff told him that if he has questions about whether or not God is real, and whether or not God wants to talk with him, just go home and ask. Go home and pray something like this: "God, at the HUB! they say you are real. I'm not sure I believe it, but I think I want to, so if you are real, show me."

This week he came back all excited, saying "I found Jesus in a coffee cup!" We all laughed and then he told this simple story. He was at his Mom's place of work, thinking about what Jeff had told him, and he was praying that prayer. For whatever reason, he began to fidget with a random coffee cup. (You know how you'll do something just to keep the hands occupied while you think.) At some point, he looked at the cup and noticed that the inscription on it read, "Jesus is real."

Now I know that we are not talking about a miracle of huge proportions here. I know the cup said "Jesus is real" before he picked it up. I know that we can't take this story and run to the secular press shouting, "Look, look. Jesus is real. It says so on this coffee cup."

But today I'm not talking about God revealing himself to the world. (If I remember correctly, He did that at Calvary.) Today I'm talking about the desire that God has for His Spirit to talk with the spirit of a 12 year old boy. Even that boy is mature enough to know that it doesn't prove anything. He told me that God doesn't normally talk an an audible voice, but that he could use little things like this to get our attention.

But here's one thing I know. The 12 year old boy is in a conversation with God, and God is both listening and speaking intently.

Here's a few things to ponder:

• Do you think God wants His Spirit to chat with your spirit?
• Are you willing to sit down and listen? The Bible talks about the "still small voice" of God. We live in a world with a cacophony of competing voices, so it seems to me that it might take intense listening, focused listening to really hear the voice of God.
• Don't be surprised if the chat begins over a "cup of coffee"