John 1:43-51 KJV
43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
48 Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
49 Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.
50 Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.
51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

As a child we all have probably played hide and seek. Question are you playing tag. In tag you can see your opponent but in hide and seek you have to be found. It the constant chasing after another or catch me if you can game. That says I will find you and I will catch you. In God's game of light shining in darkness it for a purpose. It the appearance of I hoping you be curious about this light and want to know about it. I hoping you will seek the light and not the darkness and evil around you. The word game is not so acccurately a good word to describing God shining his light on us and so forth but in one since perhaps that is how it might seem. God created us to be curious about surroundings, to seek out good things and not evil. Eve looked at the fruit, it wa pretty to the eye. Yet beauty is only skin deep when it comes to poison within the fruit that caused Adam and Eve to have the knowledge of good and evil after eating the fruit. We can only see the outward skin and not the heart. We see the flesh but we have no knowledge what beneath it. God sees the heart. When God shines light onto the earth in the soul of man it must go deeper then the flesh but the inner being. Jesus finds Phillip and tells him to come follow him. Yet Philip goes and finds his brother Nathaniel and says to him we found the one that the law of Moses and the prophets wrote about he is Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said can anything good come out of Nazareth.

One of the biggest bigotry in our own nation is not about racism, it about location of any group of people. It began perhaps at the civil war. The time when bigotry of race was already in vogue in our land, but the bigotry of whether you were from the south or from the north waged on how one was treated by what circle. If a New Yorker you were treated with the dignity of northern if you were from Pennyslvania but if you were from the North, they often treated the southern rebels as if they were trash. Does it go on today, in some places and in someways I suspect location still plays a big part on someone response to a person. It matters not if you put your racist banner down the bigotry will still exist just because of location. In that sense it makes no sense at all, other then the hate is to great for forgiveness after over hundred years still exist. Today is Martin Luther King Day, a man that is legion to the black race and the white race, why because he cared about all people, and he desired the freedom for all people to be the same, not one race over powering the other. Had he seen the south being treated differently from the north, perhaps, but that was white issue not is calling to deal with since he was black. He had his own struggle and legacy of racism caused to his people he carried the torch for. He cared and desire his people to feel and know equality in all parts of society, because the more education a black person had and the more power he had the chains of bigotry would end in some areas of society and he knew it could be in all society not just one area. Through out scripture there is bigotry, there is division because of location, groups of people being different like the Samaritans and Gentiles. The attitude that one group of people is better then another. In reality this is not true. Yet we see bigotry in all groups of people. Some families even shun their weaker family members because they hae no value in regard to being great in society or popular. It happens and it happens more in racist groups, or groups that define themselves as better then anyone else. They do not seek the weaker of society as having a purpose and only seek to destroy when their value has no value anymore. It called ethnic cleansing, it called bigotry, it called knocking a person down that might not be able to climb a ladder in society that meets society approval or standards.

Nathanael looked at his brother Philip and said can anything good come out of Nazareth. Philip response was come see for yourself. We have heard stories were down syndrome men and women have been able to carry a position of management. These people were often looked down upon as enable to be productive. It not so. If you see a person without a leg, do you break or cut off the other leg because he does not meet your two legged standard. No you find a crutch, artificial leg and equip him for work he is able to do in society. Yet he is labeled a crippled.

Nathanael gets up and follows his brother to see Jesus. Jesus calls him a true Israelite with no guile/sublitity. Nathanael ask Jesus how do you know me? Nathaniel was more or less saying we never meet, so how can you say truth even if you know me not. Jesus says I seen you under the fig tree. I assume that Jesus was some distance from the fig tree or far enough way, that he knew his brother Phillip spoke the truth of who Jesus was, the Messiah the one scripture spoke of. It matter not Jesus was called a Nazarene by the prophets, it was clear as day he misspoken under the fig tree of what was good was coming out of area of Gentile region.

We think of the south can anything come good out of the south. Many things come good out of the south. Many great minds have come out of the south including presidents. Yet people have formed bigotries because of language they fail to realize it just how people sometimes talk. How people sometimes are in anger, in frustration and in heat of the day. Nathanael misspoke but he was put in his place upon knowing who spoke to him. Last place we see Nathanael recorded is in John 21 as Peter calls to the disciples to go fishing. We know he was present at the time of Christ ascension and in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples because he was counted as one of the twelve. Yet what we know his conversion came quickly, and more quickly then others when only going to see who Jesus was. His bigotry and attitude all changed upon meeting Jesus. He had a life changing experience when meeting Jesus.

Where is your attitude after meeting Jesus, where is attitude when coming from different parts of America to another location in our land. The one things that divides is bigotry and hate. We all make off color jokes about another area but we never consider it true bigotry, but for some it truly it. Today is Martin Luther King birthday. I thought I mention it he is a man just like any other man. We can choose to honor Christ by laying bigotry down, or continue in the way of what normal to us. We can let the ties of hate be so rooted that change of friendship, peace and harmony can not exist. Or we can choose to allow Jesus to heal the bigotry and hate and move foreward in peace and harmony.

Dear Heavenly Father, give us strength for today. Tear down the wall of hate that your only Son stood up against, and always won. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: John 21:2 KJV
2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.