The Altar to the God Nobody Knew

Have you ever felt around in the dark for something you could not see, hands open wide, hoping to touch the one thing you wanted most?

That is what Paul saw when he walked into the city of Athens.

It was a beautiful city, full of clever people who loved to think and talk all day long. But everywhere Paul looked there were statues. Stone gods on every corner. Gods of the sea and the sky, gods of war and wisdom, gods made of marble and silver and gold. So many of them that Paul's heart grew heavy.

All those statues meant something sad. They meant the people were reaching in the dark for someone real, someone who could love them back, and not one of those cold stone faces ever could.

Then Paul found something that made him stop.

A little altar, tucked in among all the rest. And carved upon it were these words: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.

The people of Athens had made so many gods, and still they worried. What if there is One we have missed? One we do not even have a name for? So they built an altar just for him. A god they could not see, a god they did not know, a god they were aching for somewhere down deep without knowing what to call him.

And Paul smiled. Oh, how he smiled. Because he knew that God. He had met him.

So Paul stood up tall in the middle of the clever city and said, "That God you are reaching for in the dark, the One you cannot name? I know his name, and I will tell you.

"He made the sky and the sea and you. He does not live in a stone box. He does not need a single thing from your hands. And he is not far away.

"He is nearer than your own breath. In him you live, and move, and have your very being. You have been his children all along, feeling around in the dark for the Father who was standing right beside you."

Then Paul told them how close this unknown God had come. Close enough to touch. He had a face now, and a name too. He had walked the earth and loved the lonely and died and risen up again, alive for always. His name was Jesus, and he had come all that way looking for them.

Some of the clever people laughed. Some of them stood very still and listened hard. And some of them believed, and the aching in their hearts settled, because the One they had been searching for had taken hold of their hands at last.

Maybe you have felt that ache too, reaching in the dark for someone you cannot quite see.

He is not unknown anymore. He came looking for you, and he knows your name.