Thought for Today
Psalm 8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you-- you of little faith!
Yesterday, I wrote about interests and excitement. That led me to think about thoughts. What thoughts occupy your mind? What thoughts occupy my mind? Why? Why do any of us think about the things we think about? Presuming, that is, that we do think. Some days the evidence all around me leads me to wonder!
I have always loved Psalm 8. God did create humankind “a little lower than God” himself. Despite what some seem to believe, however, there are differences. God is always God, the Creator of All. God is eternal, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Only God can fully know and understand the mind of God, the plans of God. To coin a familiar phrase, that is above our paygrade. We are temporally finite, of limited power, confined to a specific personal presence, and despite what some seem to think, certainly not omniscient.
As I ponder thought itself, I realize that my mind is often a swirling pool of random thoughts. Unless I am focused on a sermon or lost deep in reading some book, my mind is constantly churning. It flits from topic to topic, Some thoughts are serious, deep reflections on something I see, hear or sense. Some thoughts are inane and silly, hardly worth the mental effort of forming them. And, as a beloved former pastor used to remind us, some thoughts are formed by my ‘shadow side,’ by the part of my mind I don’t even want to admit to myself exists. Some of my thoughts are worthy and proud, some may even be worth sharing. Some would be best never formed.
The amazing thing for us all is that, as the psalmist wrote, God is mindful of us. God has truly crowned us with glory and honor; God has graced us with salvation. How incredible that God loves us, “warts and all.” It is not that God doesn’t know about our silly, inane or shameful thoughts. God is omniscient and omnipresent. That means that God is right there with me and with you as we think those inane and silly thoughts. God is right there with us as we try to hide some of our thoughts even from ourselves. To coin another phrase, ‘We can run but we cannot hide from God.’
The Bible does tell us about some who have tried to hide from God, who have run from God. Jonah tried and failed. Some have tried to aggressively pursue false paths in pursuit of God. Saul of Tarsus tried to persecute Christians. Jesus found him on the road to Damascus, intent on stamping out the nascent Christian movement. Saul became Paul, the missionary who spread that movement into Europe.
No matter who we are, no matter what thoughts we may have, God cares for us and has crowned us with glory and honor. “Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” God did not demand anything of humankind other that to till and keep the garden God created. God did not demand we only think noble, worthy thoughts. God merely asked us to weed the garden.
God loves us! Why? Again, that’s above my paygrade. I have never consciously tried to memorize a lot of Bible passages. I do remember the 23rd Psalm; I do remember John 3:16-17. I take great comfort on Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—”
One of my favorite hymns is Jesus Loves Me. I learned it as a child. I still love to sing it as an adult. That hymn and those favored verses I mention remind me that God’s love is unconditional and all-consuming. God’s love is not because of anything I have done or ever will do . . . except accepting God’s love. My salvation, the restoration of my relationship with God, is God’s gift, freely given because of my faith in God’s gift to Creation, Jesus the Christ. None of it is because of me, because of anything I think. It is all because God is God.
That is an amazing thought. I don’t need to hide anything from God. God loves me just as I am. My mind is thinking about the words of another hymn, Just as I Am. “Just as I am without one plea but that your blood was shed for me. And that you called inviting me. O Lamb of God, I come, I come!”
Stay safe, accept God’s love, trust God,
Pastor Ray