"Come Watson! The Game Is Afoot!" (Or, Privileged Responsibility)

"Come Watson!  The Game Is Afoot!"

(or, Privileged Responsibility)

       

     I have enjoyed since my youth the fictional stories of Sherlock Holmes and his friend/assistant Dr. John H. Watson, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Holmes' ability to solve crimes and mysteries through a highly developed and refined method of deductive reasoning provides ongoing enjoyment despite my many and repeated readings of the tales.  

    I also love Watson, particularly because of his thrill in chronicling his friend's superlative accomplishments.  Of Holmes, Watson simply affirmed, "I shall ever  regard him as the best and wisest man whom I have ever known."  I find a kinship with the good doctor in the ongoing effort to chronicle, as it were, the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Apostle John affirmed such wonder of the Savior's glory: "There are also many other things that Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books which should be written" (John 21:25).  God grants to born again believers the sublimely privileged responsibility of communicating to others the doings of Christ, and even more, the wondrous Divine nature and character from which the goodness flows.  "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name, o Most High, to show forth Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night" (Psalm 92:1-2).

    "Privileged responsibility."  Certainly God commands that we bear witness to others - "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so" (Psalm 107:2).  Before duty, however, we must view our calling to "tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love" as delight, as the purest delight.  To walk with our Lord means that we witness His doings, in the pages of Scripture, but also in the pages of our personal lives.  Frances and I seek to live in the determination to expect God, even as David exulted, "My expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).  Such a sensibility prepares us to "behold the beauty of the Lord," and to "behold the works of the Lord" (Psalm 27:4; 46:8).  We miss much, of course (especially me!), but those wonders we do discover provide scenes of glory that no other gaze can begin to offer.  Like Watson's amazed admiration of Holmes, it thrills the soul to realize new aspects of our Lord's person and works, or to remember already known glories.  Supplementing such grace are opportunities such as these devotionals to report the exploits, and even more, the excellency of the glorious One who performs them.  As a dear old missionary friend, now gone to be with the Lord, often suggested of such opportunity to witness and then proclaim, "Come and see!  Go and tell!"

    The hymn writer closes our consideration: 

"I love to tell the story of unseen things above, 

of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love… 

And when in scenes of glory, I sing the old, old song, 

t'will be the same old story that I have loved so long."

"Come and see the works of God… Show how great things God hath done."

(Psalm 66:5; Luke 8:39)

Weekly Memory Verse

   We have known and believed the love that God hath to us.  God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

(I John 4:16)