The Former Slave Invited to Speak at Nantucket

In August 1841, a young man named Frederick Douglass attended an anti-slavery convention on Nantucket Island. He had escaped bondage only three years earlier and still carried the scars of a Maryland plantation on his back. William Coffin, an abolitionist who had heard Douglass speak briefly at a small church meeting in New Bedford, urged him to address the convention. Douglass hesitated. What could a self-taught fugitive offer to an audience of educated reformers?

He rose trembling. His voice faltered at first, then steadied as he spoke of what he had witnessed and endured. The crowd sat in stunned silence. William Lloyd Garrison, the famous publisher, leaped up afterward and asked the audience, "Have we been listening to a thing, a piece of property, or a man?" The room erupted. Douglass's life changed that evening — not because he sought a platform, but because someone who had already glimpsed his gifts said, "Come and see for yourself."

This is the pattern of John 1. Philip finds Nathanael and says, "Come and see." Nathanael doubts that anything worthwhile could emerge from Nazareth, just as Douglass doubted what could emerge from a former slave. But Jesus had already seen Nathanael under the fig tree — already knew him before the invitation arrived. The Almighty does not wait for our confidence. He sees what He placed within us long before we find the courage to stand.