You Know Me

I was thinking of Psalm 139 this morning, where it says, “Oh Lord, You have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, Oh Lord.”  Psalm 139:1-4

This could be a little overwhelming, like we don’t have any privacy from God. However, it also means we don’t need any ice breakers of introduction with God. We just start talking, and He’s already fully engaged in the conversation. We can explain things, for our own benefit, but He already understands how we feel and what we’re going through. We don’t have to dance around a subject because He gets it. God gets us.

We also don’t have to search for God physically. Churches and mountaintops and sunsets and retreats can make Him seem closer … to us. But He’s right there, right here. We live in His presence, or at least on the edge of it, at every moment. We can save a lot of petrol by understanding that we don’t have to go look for God. He’s here. We just have to acknowledge him. One of the names for Jesus from the book of Isaiah is actually Emmanuel, which just means, “God with us.”

Does all of this seem a little too intimate, too “in your face,” too “give me a little space, for heaven’s sake?” Maybe sometimes. Yet it’s also beautiful and miraculous and encouraging. And true. And if God’s right here with me, ready to listen and encourage and lead and participate, it kind of changes everything. It changes my humdrum, lonely, little life into something holy and powerful. It makes you and I participants in God’s kingdom and plan. It brings heaven near and makes eternity now.

God being with us isn’t just something that happened to Old Testament prophets and New Testament disciples, or priests and monks. It’s real, and we are right here in the middle of it. “Hey, God, good morning. Thanks for being here. What shall we do today?”