Seek and Ye Shall Find

Ask, and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

A storm is raging in the mountains and the Dwarves' party is caught out in it, their mere overhang providing little shelter from the rock-shattering thunder. Thorin sends Fili and Kili, the youngest dwarves (and therefore the ones with the sharpest eyesight) to find better shelter for the group of travelers. The two scouts return, far sooner than expected, having found a cave nearby that would serve their purposes quite nicely. When questioned about how well they examined the cave to make sure it did not hold any nasty surprises, they assure everyone that they looked carefully and it looked quite protected and safe.

However, Thorin's response is, "There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something….You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after." 

That is certainly true. In this case, Fili and Kili are looking for a dry, sheltered place to spend the night, and when they come upon the cave, the dryness and shelter are all they see. They do not take the time to examine it closely – if they had, they might have found the ominous crack in the back that would prove to be a problem for everyone. Similarly, there are many people that go looking in the Bible for the verse that will support their opinion on a certain issue, and quite often they find what they think are just the right words. Just as often, they do not take the time to examine the context to find out what the verse really means, which usually is something completely different than the seeker thinks.

On the other hand, sometimes when we look, we find not quite what we were after, but that different something proves to be far better than what we thought we wanted. God promises that when we seek, we will find. Let us trust him and be open-minded enough to recognize that we have found something, even if it wasn't what we were looking for.