God Our Covering…Everywhere

“If I take the wings of the dawn…”

“Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence?  If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there; If I make my bed  in Sheol, behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Psalm 139:7‑8

The Lord holds you in the palm of His hand. He is the Rock on which you stand. The Lord goes before you and is your rear guard. The Holy Spirit dwells within you and is called to walk alongside you. Angels are sent to minister to you. God watches over you in all your ways. Pretty thorough coverage, don’t you think?

Not only is He covering you, but He is with you wherever you go, in all the universe’s places and will be with you in all of Heaven’s places. He is omnipresent. Try to get a  glimpse of that, if you can.

The unrepentant may think that they are fleeing from His presence or that they can hide from Him in the darkness. Have you heard about the fellow who was “running into God.” Didn’t work too well for Jonah.

BUURRRP! Nice try. Now get back to work.

Having an “In Awe of God Moment”

Explain this!

When my first child was born, I was there, watching. At that time, I wasn’t a believer and frankly had my doubts about God, but the whole experience left me in awe. Now mind you, my dad had explained to me the “birds and the bees” when I turned 13, and I had seen illustrations of fetal development in books, but those were theoretical babies or someone else’s babies. This was my firstborn.

I was in awe.

Then, later in life, my babies grew up and started having babies. I couldn’t wrap my mind around their births so it’s for sure that I understood my grandchildren’s births even less! Science can describe the process, sort of. But who can really comprehend all this?

^{Psalm 139: 13-16} Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day. (The Message)

My only son talks to his only son, Noah, about becoming a man who walks with God.

Check out this TED Talk in which Nobel Prize winner Alexander Tsiaris explains the “magic” and mystery of fetal development better than anyone I’ve ever heard. He asks all the right questions that no one can answer.

 

God’s Knowledge, Numbers

Can you count to infinity? And can you come up with an infinite number of names?

“He counts the number of the stars. He gives names to all of them.” Psalm 147:4. He spoke them into existence “by the breath of His mouth.” He numbered them and gave them names.

And here’s my translation/paraphrase of Psalm 139:13-18:

“Lord, You created me and everything in me.
You assembled me in my mother’s womb.
I praise You because I am miraculously and astonishingly engineered.

All Your works are wondrous.
I can see that clearly just by considering my own body.
Even before I was conceived, You prepared the blueprint of me
and saw the chemicals for my DNA
while they were still scattered somewhere in the earth.

You foresaw all my days and inscribed them on Your Scroll
before a single one of them came to be.

The countless ways You think of me are meticulously detailed,
and how great is the sum total of all those ways!
If I tried to count them,
it would be like counting granules of sand on an endless beach.

You have also thoroughly planned my eternal destiny.
When I fall asleep for the last time,
I will wake up and live forever in Your glorious presence.”

OK, let’s start. One, two, three, four…

Biological Engineer

Easy intructions for building a human being!

Lord, You created me and everything in me.

You assembled me in my mother’s womb.
I praise You because I am miraculously and astonishingly engineered.
All Your works are wondrous.
I can see that clearly just by considering my own body.
Even before I was conceived, You prepared the blueprint of me
and saw the chemicals for my DNA
while they were still scattered somewhere in the earth.

You foresaw all my days and inscribed them on Your Scroll
before a single one of them came to be.
The countless ways You think of me are meticulously detailed,
and how great is the sum total of all those ways!
If I tried to count them,
it would be like counting granules of sand on an endless beach.

You have also thoroughly planned my eternal destiny.
When I fall asleep for the last time,
I will wake up and live forever in Your glorious presence.

Selection from Psalm 139, my paraphrase.