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After Jesus' crucifixion, the disciples went their way, wondering, questioning, troubled, and frightened. Two of them walked the long road to Emmaus.

And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.

How can you walk and talk with Jesus and not even know it's Him? Wouldn't you feel... well, something? Wouldn't there be some sense of something happening? Something great, or meaningful, or deep? Wouldn't there at least be some kind of burning sensation that something significant was happening?

Yes, there would be. Because there was.

“And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”

Their hearts did burn.

I've felt that before. Not while walking with a “stranger,” but while praying quietly in my room. I also felt it once while serving the Lord in His temple. I felt it once while reading His words. I felt it while listening to His servants. And I've felt it while walking alone. In fact, I've felt it many many times while doing those things.

The men that walked with Him didn't recognize Him, but they did feel Him. I walked alone, read alone, and prayed alone, yet I still felt Him. I felt that burning even when He wasn't really there at all.

Then again, maybe He was there. Maybe He was walking with me, speaking to me, writing to me, administering to me, and conversing with me. I suppose it's my own foolish heart that sometimes convinces me that my experiences are nothing but “idle tales.”

It's also interesting to me that Jesus, after talking with these men all day, would have continued walking off into the night—except for one thing. They invited Him to stay.

“Abide with us,” they said, “for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.”

Then without the slightest resistance, the scripture reads, “And he went in to tarry with them.”

It was there, in the house, while sharing a meal together, that their eyes were open, and they knew Him.

If I really have been in His presence, with my eyes holden, so I couldn't see or recognize Him, could it be that the only thing I forgot was that simple invitation?

Abide with me, please Lord, abide with me.

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Chas Hathaway's secret to an rockin' life is to marry awesome, have a boat-load of kids, and eat lots of parmesan cheese covered popcorn. Oh, and live the gospel of Jesus Christ, completely and passionately.