Father, it is a most beautiful day but not without its challenges. May decisions made be with Your wisdom. Amen.
Psalms 139:1-24 (<<click here to read the passage)
One rule of the road while driving in this part of the country is, if possible, to slow down when you see a deer. If you only see one deer cross the road, there’s a pretty good chance that there will be another one or two close behind.
On one of my morning routes last week, I saw three does and interestingly enough they were not together. I saw each of them separately and no other deer were within sight at the time. Every single one of them just stood just off the side of the road staring at me but not moving one way or the other. At least in our area, a lone deer is a bit of a rarity.
I think at one time or another, all of us feel alone. And what may seem odd but is still true, is that even if we are in a group of people or at home with multiple family members, we can still feel alone.
Sometimes people intentionally push us out of inner circles but oft times we do it to ourselves… Regardless, let me stress that we are never truly alone.
My most reason sermon was entitled, THE GOD WHO KNOWS ME, and was based on Psalms 139. (Click on the title if you’d like to hear it. The sermon begins around the 3:00 minute mark.)
This is a beautiful psalm and well worth taking the time to read through (click on the link at the top to do so.) It was David’s observation, and the big take-aways for this psalm, is that God knows us intimately, there is no way we can get away from God, and there is no way we can hide from God. If you run from him, he runs after you. If you run to him, he embraces you. But wherever you are, and wherever you go, His love will follow you.
I thought this illustration, shared by Rev. Rod Buchanan, was absolutely amazing!
Dr. John Medina, a genetic engineer, at the University of Washington helps us to understand a bit of the intricacy of the human body. He said, “The average human heart pumps over 1,000 gallons a day, over 55 million gallons in a lifetime. This is enough to fill 13 supertankers. It never sleeps, beating 2.5 billion times in a lifetime. The lungs contain 1,000 miles of capillaries. The process of exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide is so complicated, that it is more difficult to exchange 02 for C02 than for a man shot out of a cannon to carve the Lord’s Prayer on the head of a pin as he passes by. DNA contains about 2,000 genes per chromosome — 1.8 meters [nearly 6 feet] of DNA are folded into each cell nucleus. A nucleus is 6 microns [one-millionth of a meter] long. This is like putting 30 miles of fishing line into a cherry pit. And it isn’t simply stuffed in. It is folded in. If folded one way, the cell becomes a skin cell. If another way, a liver cell, and so forth. To write out the information in one cell would take 300 volumes, each volume 500 pages thick. The human body contains enough DNA that if it were stretched out, it would circle the sun 260 times. The body uses energy efficiently. If an average adult rides a bike for 1 hour at 10 mph, it uses the amount of energy contained in 3 ounces of carbohydrate. [So lay off the donuts.] If a car were this efficient with gasoline, it would get 900 miles to the gallon.”
Our bodies are complicated to the extreme and we all know that our emotional hearts and minds are more complicated still. He knows us inside and out, yet He still loves us, all the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We may feel that we are, but we are never truly alone. God readily embraces us…oh, that we would eagerly embrace Him, as well!
May 31st, 2022, Tues, 1:03 pm
