Thoughts for the Day

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth....
My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
Look to him, and be radiant;
so your[a] faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord,
and was saved from every trouble.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Have you ever played "hide and seek" in a wood with a child? I mean either a wood with solid trunks that they can hide behind, or a mixed wood of fir trees and deciduous trees, the kind a child can scamper under and make dens. When its your turn to count to ten (hopefully not to one hundred) even before you open your eyes, you find yourself listening. You can hear every rustle from the tree tops, every bird, and if you're lucky every giggle from the child, which at least might give you a clue as to their direction. Then you open your eyes and begin to look - for that extra shadow, or that strange movement alongside a tree trunk. Have you managed to find the child, or have you to keep on looking?

It seems to me that searching for God can be a little like this. Sometimes we feel we can see evidence of Him, perhaps in some unexplained or unusual occurrence, when we were at rock-bottom but suddenly feel He has heard our cry for attention. Sometimes it's in words that someone speaks to us when we have felt lost or alone. Sometimes a passage from scripture will pop into our mind just when we need it, or if we're reading a Bible passage suddenly it will seem particularly appropriate. But at other times God feels far away, and hidden from us, as thought He doesn't care for us.

But there is a simple analogy with the game of "hide and seek". We don't find unless we seek!

Lord God,
all too often we forget to look for You,
we're just too busy with our lives,
and we take Your presence for granted.
Help us to be still and watch for Your
presence in our lives and in our world,
and may we never stop looking.
Amen.