His disciples asked, Why do the Jewish leaders insist Elijah must return before the Messiah comes? Jesus replied, They are right. Elijah must come and set everything in order. And, in fact, he has already come, but he wasn't recognized, and was badly mistreated by many. And I, the Messiah, shall also suffer at their hands. Then the disciples realized he was speaking of John the Baptist.
Food for thought!
Elijah does come and get everything ready, but they didnt recognize him! This statement is both informative and a regret. Its informative because it tells us that Elijah did come; its a regret because it laments that Elijah was missed.
The very people whose duty was to receive Elijah, the religious people of the time, missed him; they didn't know him when they saw him. They treated him like dirt, the same way they are about to treat Jesus! Why and how did this happen? Why do we miss that for which we have been waiting? Why do we lose that which we have worked so hard to get? Why do we miss the point?
This is like asking, why do some students, whose duty is to learn miss the exam? Why do couples, who married in order to live together and love each other miss the point? Why do the religious people, whose duty is to love and serve God miss the point? Why do we miss the point?
You have probably heard the phrase, What you see is what you get. This saying calls to mind a law of life that has nothing to do with what is being seen and everything to do with who is doing the seeing. In other words, we see what we want to see; we learn what we want to learn; we are what we want to be.
So, what you see is what you get and what I see is what I get!
Remember, the more sincere interest you express in life, the more joy and success life can bring into your world. A big difference between happiness and misery, success and failure, effectiveness and uselessness, competence and ineptitude, courage and fear, strength and weakness, cannot be blamed on circumstances or other people. Rather, the condition of your mind is the more causative factor. Nothing is interesting if you are not interested!
As someone once said, Age is not a question of years. The years may wrinkle your skin but it is the lack of interest that wrinkles your soul. This same analogy holds true with how interestingly life unfolds for you. Nothing is interesting in life, in school, in marriage, in work if and when you are not interested. Yes, sometimes we wait for Elijah that's right in front of us; we may be searching for the kingdom of heaven, which is right within us all the time (Luke 17:20-21), yet often we recognize it not. Nothing is interesting if you are not interested!
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