Tuesday, October 18, 2005

From a distance?

Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

A tourist to New York City took the trip to the top of the Empire State Building. As he was looking down from that lofty view to the people on the sidewalks, they appeared to him like ants scurrying about their business. The tourist said, “I imagine this is the way the people of the earth look to God.”

This tourist’s comment reminds us of a song made popular by Bette Midler some years ago, where she sings “God is watching us from a distance.” But both Bette and this New York tourist were wrong—God does not view us from a distance! God is not sitting on top of a distant mountain like the gods of Olympus, only looking at our lives with a detached, casual interest. That is the religion of Deism—the belief held by some of America's Founding Fathers that God is like a divine clockmaker who made the universe, wound it up, and now passively watches it tick away on its own.

The Bible reveals a very different God to us. The Bible tells us of a God who is interested in every aspect of our lives, a God who wants us to be praying to Him every day, a God who knows us in such detail that Jesus said: the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30). The Bible tells us of a God who was so interested in our lives that He sent His Son to wear the body of a human being and live among us, sharing in both our joys and sorrows. The Bible tells us of a divine Savior who was willing to suffer God’s anger at our sins on our behalf, because He cared so much about each and every one of us that He was willing to shoulder that terrible punishment for us. We are not insignificant ants to our Lord; in fact, Jesus said: I have called you friends (John 15:15). Please join me in praying:

Dearest Jesus, we thank You for Your loving interest in our lives. We thank You for caring about us so much that You stepped down from the glories of heaven to walk with us. We thank You for dedication to our welfare that nailed You to a cursed cross to die for our sinfulness. Keep us in Your arms always, Lord Jesus. Amen.

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