Search Engines

When I was growing up, if you did not know how to spell a word, you looked it up in the dictionary using a trial and error method. Since you did not know how to spell it, you took a guess and checked to see if you were correct. Eventually you got close enough to find the word. Then to avoid having to go through all that again, you made sure you remembered the spelling for the next time.

When we needed to find some facts about someone or something, we went to the library to look it up in shelves of resource material starting with an encyclopedia. At that time many made a living selling encyclopedias door to door. The super markets often had deals where you could by the next volume for a great price when you shopped with them. A new volume would come on sale each week. After twenty-six weeks you had the entire collection of A-Z.

Today we have the Internet and search engines. It checks spelling, does math, looks up phone numbers to find names and addresses, displays satellite imagery of addresses, gives directions, researches anything asked, and much more. Google is so popular its name has become a verb in our language. You hear others say “Google it” meaning use the Google search engine to find out.
Have you ever had something, like someone’s name, on the tip of you tongue? You knew exactly who they were but could not remember their name. Finally you gave up and moved on to something else. Then, at some time in the future, their name popped into your mind.

You had engaged your personal search engine. Thinking about them was like typing in the request to an Internet search engine. When you let go and moved onto something else, your brain continued the search in the background and did not give up until it found the results you were looking for. Then in the middle of a conversation with someone else, their name came up like a pop-up screen and you blurted it out to the confusion of the person you were with.

We were made in the image and likeness of God. He tells us we have the wisdom of the Bible inside, we just cannot get to it until we are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit.

When we need to know about our past, our internal search engine can be called on. When we need to have God’s wisdom and knowledge, the Holy Spirit searches for us, and reveals the results as we allow Him. It is up to us to let Him in, communicate our needs, wait patiently for the results, and then use what He reveals.