So Long Time – And Yet
Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
John 14:9
Poor, dull, matter-of-fact Philip! Three years with Jesus, His preaching, His teaching, His miracles, Himself – and yet! “Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us.” And for three years he had been looking right at the supreme revelation of the Father! “So long time – and yet!”
But we have no business feeling embarrassed and ashamed of Philip. For two thousand years we have had His presence, His church, the Spirit, the Word – and look at us! And some of us are well over life’s hill and He has been with us all the way – so long time and yet! How poorly we know Him, how slow of heart to believe, how little like Him!
No, I will blush for Philip, I will blush for myself. Is there a duller disciple anywhere? Forgive me, Lord. I need shed no tears for Philip, I should weep for myself.
“So long time…and yet!”