35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 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.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
Come. This is the call of Jesus over and over again. Come. He does not give more or less. It’s an invitation, an invitation to trust, to observe, to leave the former, and to accept whatever He leads us to.
We often want more. We want to know where we are going, the timeline, what is expected, what will remain the same, what will change, and more and more and more. We hear the call to ‘Come’ and we don’t reject it outright, but rather ask for the plan and details.
Or maybe that’s just me.
It comes down to control. We feel the need to control situations, futures, outcomes, etc. But the truth we fail to acknowledge is that we can only truly experience the good that God has for us if we are not the ones with control.
When we seek control over something, we lose so much more than we gain. With control, we lose the possibility of joy within the journey and within the experience. We lose the possibility of our own transformation. We lose the possibility of experiencing God’s plan. We lose the possibility of experiencing love, hope, peace, etc.
Instead of seeking control, we are invited to step beyond ourselves into faith. God invites us to ‘come and see’. This is discipleship. We begin with following. We learn who Jesus is. We participate in what Jesus does. We experience what Jesus does. We grow in our attachment to Him and that changes us, forms us, and makes us a new creation.
So, what about you? Are you like me? Do you seek to control and know?
Release that desire. Step into whatever God is calling you into. Come, and see.
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