Scripture: John 1:45-47 (NIV)

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

Obi-Wan Kenobi had deactivated the tractor beam but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. There were two troopers at the end of the walkway that would have been well rewarded should they have taken Kenobi into custody. Kenobi, though, was a veteran of many different encounters with enemies, including clones after Order 66. He knew how to use his talents to his advantage and, with a little Force suggestion, got the troopers to turn their heads and miss him darting down the other end of the walkway and out of sight.

The troopers were this close to a remarkable encounter. If they’d stayed focused, they would have tangled with one of the last known Jedi survivors. They might not have come away from that encounter in good shape, of course, but they probably never knew (since their lives likely ended shortly after this as the station exploded) how their lives could have been different if they’d had been looking the right way at the right time.

Nathanael was sitting under a fig tree when his friend Philip came to tell him the good news. The Messiah was here! That likely thrilled Nathanael until he heard where this supposed Savior was from. Whether it was a bit of a rivalry or the fact that it was a less-than-ideal town, Nathanael didn’t think that anything good could have come out of a place like Nazareth, much less the salvation of the Jewish people.

Imagine if Nathanael had stuck to that. What if Philip had walked away, shaking his head over his friend’s intransigence, leaving Nathanael to stay under the tree and continue to wait for something that fit more in line with his personal expectations. He would have missed out on a daily walk with the embodied God of the Universe. He would have not seen the miracles and wonders that Jesus regularly did. He might have never known how close he came to the transforming experience of being in the presence of the Lord.

Thankfully for Nathanael, Philip was persistent enough to get him out from under the fig tree and get him to the Savior. Are we as fortunate? Do we miss out on glimpses of our Savior because we aren’t looking or aren’t willing to believe that He could work in our lives in that way? Do we want the big spectacle that we can’t miss and not look for the small, almost invisible ways that He is with us?

Don’t let the Lord slip by you, dismissing that glimpse of Him that you caught out of the corner of your eye. It might be a small gesture made by a friend or a kind word when you really need it. So often we don’t want to give God the credit He deserves in such moments. We just take them at face value and miss out on a connection with our Savior. So the next time something happens like that, don’t let it slip by you without acknowledgement. Look for the Lord in all things!