God Sees You - January 12
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 5, 6; PM Psalm 10, 11; Isa. 40:25-31; Eph. 1:15-23; Mark 1:14-28
Today’s Reflection
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless” (Isaiah 40-27-29).
Each time I fly somewhere (though it’s been a while now due to the pandemic), looking down on the earth from the windows of my plane, I’m reminded of the need to reconnect with God and his divine perspective. We can get a limited sense of this when we fly, high up in the atmosphere, as we look down and see how humankind, and all the things we have built, seem very, very tiny—from this higher point of view.
Even just a few minutes connecting with God through a prayer, or silence, or a scripture passage, or nature can help us gain a new perspective. God’s vantage point is like that of someone looking down from above—a very different point of view from our default perspective, which tends to be stuck down amongst the weeds. God has the eternal perspective of the Creator in that God’s understanding transcends our limited human understanding of time and space, not to mention of ourselves and our place in it.
Just a few verses earlier in Isaiah 40, we read this: “Have you not known?... It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers” (Isaiah 40:21-22). As little, green grasshoppers looking up from down in the weeds where we tend to spend most of our time, it can seem like God doesn’t see us. In fact, it is we who cannot see God—all we see are all these weeds that are holding us grasshoppers back from leaping up into the sunshine and fresh air—into the freedom from worry and want—that we all seek. However, rest assured that God sees us and knows us, and all his creation to the ends of the earth. In other words, we cannot fall off God’s radar—he cannot not see us, he cannot not know us.
Not only that, but God does not grow weary—he does not get tired of us. God understands us better than we can understand ourselves. And not only is he always there for us as our everlasting God, but he empowers us: “He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.”
When we feel our way is hidden from God, when we feel powerless and in need of renewed strength, those are the moments when we most need to step away to reconnect with him through solitude and prayer—just as Jesus did again and again throughout his public ministry. As we build in these moments of purposeful disappearing, we can re-appear—as Jesus did—with renewed commitment to live into the call that God has given to each of us: to go where God has called us to go, and to proclaim his message of grace, love, and peace to all those whose paths cross ours along the way.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Recall a time when you felt like your way was “hidden from the Lord.” What about being in that situation made you feel unseen or disconnected from God’s loving gaze? What happened—or who intervened—to help you feel reassured that you are always seen and cared for by God?
Daily Challenge
Consider how you might give up time normally spent on something else in favor of using that time to disappear—as Jesus did—for the purpose of re-appearing refreshed and renewed, ready to take on the next challenge God has in store for you.